Back in the day, a Slip n’ Slide was THE way to cool down on a warm summer afternoon. You’d gotten too old for the wading pool, so you brought out the yellow piece of plastic and launched yourself at the ground. If you were poorer or just resourceful, you did the same with lots of saran wrap or a tarp and some dishwashing soap. If you had nothing, you just swamped the lawn and dealt with the grass burns and green skin.
Nowadays, the Slip n’ Slide seems to have morphed with the jumpy thing kids have at parties. They don’t get scarred quite the way we did (unless they use lots of soap and end up on the sidewalk), but it does evoke the same summertime fun.
The thing about slip n’ slide was that it always looked way more fun on the commercials. (BTW, I still remember the jingle.) We’d set it up on the hot summer days only to quickly get bored. Running and jumping on to grass — even if it’s covered with the slide — always hurt a little. The grass is hard and you feel a thump on your tummy.
Soon enough we’d get bored of the slide and just play in the sprinkler.