It ’s so red-hot the ice cubes in your field glass of lemonade enter limbo before you could wet your back talk . Even the air conditioner ca n’t keep up . Worse yet , your minor have claim to lie about , whining in a pitching your psyche only ca n’t deal much longer .
Since you ’re sweating through summertime solstice anyway , why not fully commit ? It ’s time to plunge a serial publication of water - sop shenanigans on your own front lawn .
The Slip ' N Slide , one of the populace ’s simple and most popular summer inventions , can help oneself your tyke ( and you ) survive the heat . Plus , it sets up in minute and will soon attract your children ’s friends from within a six - block region .
Perhaps the most remarkable matter about the Slip ' N Slide is its homage to the effectuality of advertising . Take a brightly colored box housing an every bit vibrant plastic toy ; add a few well - timed marketing photos and a pinch of nostalgia . Voilà ! You ’re the proud new owner of a $ 10 toy that is credibly not deserving the monetary value you paid .
In its most basic bod , a Slip ' N Slide is a long , lean plastic sheet ( commonly about 40 inches wide and 25 feet long or 1 meter wide and 7.6 meters long ) to which a garden hose is attached via a cylindrical tube on one side [ source : Walsh ] . bantam holes in the tube let the pee spurt out to ensure a slippery surface . The water pick up in a shallow pool at one end of the piece of paper . Sometimes additional gizmos , such as tiny natural spring that shoot from the sides of the charge plate sheet or inflatable " boogie-woogie table , " are part of the parcel .
Slip ' N Slide drug user queue at one last of the plastic sheeting , get a operative start , fling onto its watery surface and then slide until they come to a occlusive in the shallow pool at the remnant . It works good on a blue-blooded , downward slope – one that , naturally , is free of Rock and control stick .
There are some clear winners in this mecca of backyard playfulness : your children , their Friend and your fragile head that could n’t handle any more whining to the tune of " I ’m blase " or " There ’s nothing to do . " But there is a definite downside , too . grownup are n’t supposed to apply Slip ' N Slides .
A Slippery Slope
It was an average summer afternoon when Robert Carrier , a boat upcountry upholsterer in California , arrived home from employment .
The scene that greet him , however , was anything but average . His boy was doing belly flops down the family driveway , slide toward the street . He ’d used a garden hosiery to turn the paint concrete surface into an unrehearsed urine slide .
It did n’t take long for Carrier to bring home a safer result : a 50 - foundation ( 15.24 - metre ) roll of vinyl - covered material his Logos could expend to slide in the sens instead of the drive .
Carrier eventually patent his invention and sold it to Wham - O , the same company that initiated the American love affair with theHula Hoopand Frisbee . Wham - O introduced the Slip ' N Slide as a children ’s toy at the 1961 Toy Fair [ origin : Walsh ] . Since then , billion of Slip ' N Slides have been sell , despite cautions from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and reports of serious injuries . Seven adults and a 13 - year - old abide neck injuries or paralysis between 1973 and 1991 after using a Wham - O Slip ' N Slide [ origin : CPSC ] .
In fact , Wham - O check making the water slideway in the late ' 70s , after the first reports of injuries . In 1982 , a toy company call Kransco acquired Wham - O and reintroduced the ware in 1983 with a admonition label that it was not for use by adults [ source : Weiser ] .
A 1991 lawsuit work by a piece who became a quadriplegic after using a Slip ' N Slide led the delegation to put out thiswarning in 1993 : " Because of their weight unit and height , adults and teenagers who dive onto the weewee slideway may gain and abruptly stop in such a room that could get permanent spinal cord wound , result in quadriplegia or paraplegia . The slider ’s advancing momentum drive the consistence into the neck and compress the spinal cord . "
After thelawsuit , the Slip’N Slide was once again taken off the marketplace but was brought back in the 2000s , a perennial backyard favorite of nipper . It still fall in its trademark icteric form , as well as inflatable , sports - themed and multi - user versions . The current product is labeled for age 5 to 12 .
However , like other dangerous undertaking - seeking adult , you could make your own water fun with a plastic sheet that is much longer than the store brand , and conceivably , safe for your spinal cord – unless you take the whole contrivance to level 11 by sum up obstacles , ramps or sister oil .
Lots More Information
I must have been one of the three fry in the U.S. who did n’t expend summer afternoon keel down a Slip ' N Slide . My recent excitement at filling in this miss childhood retentivity was , however , tempered when my research unveil the rash of Slip ' N Slide spinal injury that trim up during the 1990s . Naturally , I hasten to the store to see if I could still buy a Slip ' N Slide . Then I allow my two youngest daughters spend an afternoon ( injury - complimentary , thank goodness ) savor trial / flop / slide antics . Duly warned by the CPSC , I desist from any Slip ' N microscope slide activities . Funny , though , I did have a bun in the oven the Kool - Aid Man – that beloved " spokespitcher " of the mid-1970s – to burst through the backyard fencing , sugary refreshment in hand .
