August 24, 2024: Water Park Memories

[RoboAdmin]

August 24, 2024: Water Park Memories

Read this article on the Illuminator.

[Alden Loveshade]

Before I wander off into memory land, an important note on children swimming. (And please forgive me for "showing my credentials" here. But I did write about water safety for both NBC Sports Network and Yahoo Sports.) According to U.S. Government statistics, the leading cause of death for children age 1 to 4 in America is drowning. Before you get any significant amount of standing water on your property, or even otherwise, teach children how to swim.

And yes, tell them not to swim when they're alone. But not all children follow every single rule...so teach them how to swim.

Now I'll wander. My favorite "water park" memories are building my own!

OK, I'm exaggerating by calling them "water parks." But me and others built our own fish pond. That one only lasted about a year. But then knowing what we were doing, we built another. We dug out the yards-wide area for the pond with hand shovels. Then we collected and picked up large rocks and boulders by hand and transported them by heavy duty truck to build the walls. Then we mixed the concrete with handheld shovels and hoes. And designed the waterfall (which is harder than you might think). Then later we built another pond.

Those ponds weren't big enough for swimming (unless you were under about a yard tall which a few visitors were.) But having fish eat out of your hand, and petting willing fish underwater, were pretty cool!

[PracticalM]

I was always lucky to have grandparents with a pool.
I'm pretty sure I spent most summers all day in the pool.