Monday, June 25, 2012

Summer Heat + American Ingenuity

I watch this video every year as the temperature climbs and summer settles in like some fat diva imperiously pressing her great, heated weight onto the earth.

The Best Homemade Water Slide EVAH!

 



These kids rise above it, conquering the heat.  They are amazing.   THIS is America - the America I grew up in.   The America that still exists in neighborhoods all across this country.   I love how they stay at it all day, into the night...the camera capturing their shadowy images and the lights in the house as they refuse to give up on the day's fun.

Hell, yes!

2 comments:

  1. First, awesome.

    Second, how did they get the distance correct from the get go? I first suspected they used physics to determine placement of the pool, then I decided they just winged it, and the first guy down had to want it bad enough to be the guinea pig.

    Third, the development of easily purchased video cameras is a wonderful thing.

    Fourth, watching the end, and the naming of the sliders: it is apparent that they called friends and said: "Get over here! You have to do this!'

    Fifth, when they are at the top, it looks, to me, like many times they are suddenly wondering just how good of an idea it is to go down the slide. They would never not go down. Peer pressure. They would never back down. But, it looks like almost all of them might have a final moment of doubt, before deciding they would rather experience hospitalization than experience the ridicule of their friends.

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    Replies
    1. Isn't this video the BEST??!?! I effing love this video! These kids are so quintessentially American...right down to their water-logged toes.

      My guess is that they used the time-worn method of "guesstimation". You know, standing back, looking at the trajectory, holding up their thumbs or perhaps even framing the scene with their two hands, and then said, "Yeah, that looks good."

      That first kid down LOOKED like measurements were about that precise. He had a pair, that's for sure! HAHA!

      Yeah...the whole neighborhood was there. Good times. And no one actually had to be hospitalized, although, you're quite correct, every one of them looked like they considered that a possibility before letting go.

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