Thursday, June 30, 2011

Bringing Back an Old Fashioned Summer - Water Fun

Going to the pool was great fun, but Granny could only take all seven of us grandkids for about 2 weeks maximum.  I'm sure she was quite insane to hold out that long, lol...

And so we'd return home.  We missed the water fun we'd been having, and though Daddy kept at least one or two rooms cool in our home, we were kids.  We wanted to be outside.  Outside was hot.  We learned to 'make do' as so many other kids did: the sprinkler to the rescue.

I can't find an image that is like the sprinkler we had.  We hooked the water hose to it, and the water moved from side to side, unlike the one above which rotates water, but it was effective in allowing us to get good and soaking wet.  Our water was well water and plenty cold, guaranteed to cool us off to the point of feeling shivery.  We played games: race the water meant we ran from one side of the sprinkler to the other to insure we were in the water each time it moved to a new location.  We also played 'jump the sprinkler' and it was always a matter of great laughter when one of us jumped just as the water was coming straight up from the sprinkler. 

We kept a sprinkler all through the growing up years for the children, not to water the lawn.  For less than $5 we provided an hour of fun on those days when the temperature peaked above 100F and the kids (and the lawn) seemed to appreciate the watering they all got.

I love the sprinkler that friend Tammy's husband made for the children to play under...You can see it here:  http://playforamoment.blogspot.com/2011/06/fun-in-sun-toddler-style.html

Honestly, I'm tempted to go out and get a sprinkler and one of these hot days just go out and play for awhile...

1 comment:

Tammy said...

We ran through Mom's garden sprinkler once the weather warmed up enough, and my kids did, too. I think it's a classic summer activity.
I keep finding different adaptations of the PVC sprinkler Greg built, so who knows - we may eventually have a pvc sprinkler water park at our house! :o)