Zip Line

Last night we were all sitting around the dinner table, and Mom asked us what our favourite childhood memories were. I think she was angling towards Christmas tradition memories, but the first thing that got mentioned was the zip line.

The zip line has never appeared in the blog, maybe because it occurred during the post-drought of summertime.

According to Sarah, Dan and her dreamed of the zip line four years before they were able to bring it into the world. What changed was the acquisition of a clothesline and the wheels that came with it. Suddenly new worlds were opened. If they could just pull a line of clothesline taut and hang something off the wheel, they would be zipping across the backyard in no time.

The challenge turned out to be finding things on which to affix the clothesline. The tall tree next to our deck would work well, and on the other side the baby barn door would do.

Then they had to figure out what to hang from the wheel. A rubbermaid storage container? No, too heavy. Only Sam was tiny enough for that. A bike tire they found underneath our deck would be perfect.

Finally, the zip line was complete. Dan and Sarah climbed the tree, and hooked Sarah in. Then they called everybody outside, including some visitors, to witness its maiden voyage. Dad said, "are you sure that's safe kids?" Dan said, "Oh yeah." and let go. With a splintering crack the baby barn door was wrenched off its hinges and flew across the yard. Sarah sat on the ground six feet below below the take-off point, a dumbfounded look on her face.

After that debacle, Dad still let them make another attempt at a zip line. This one was a success, even if you had to be careful not to hold onto the line lest the wheel roll over your fingers with all your weight on it, and also to bail out before you hit the spade that they'd used to connect all the pieces of clothesline, and also to stick out your legs to avoid crashing into the large rock that came next.