Throwback Thursday III: Water Park Collision

When my son Evan (left in this photo) was little, we went to quite a few water parks, mostly for me. One of his favorite activities was playing CRASH! with the bumper boats and the kid was really good at it (as you can see here with him smashing one of his buddies). This photo was taken about 1980 and he would have been about 6.

He took such joy in these smashups that you could hear him laugh all over the water park. When he drowned me, you could hear him laugh in the next state. Another fun ride was the Blue Whale water slide at a park near Roanoke. Evan wasn't big enough to go fast down the 25-or-so-yard flu, so he'd take off head first and I'd let him get a few yards ahead, dive in behind him, grab his feet and steer him willy-nilly to the bottom and the big splash. The lifeguards took a dim view of us, but didn't stop us.

'Twas fun.