Apr 12, 2010

Swinging

I think that is Chad in the middle fighting over the swing.

He has the same color hair as Chad and the boy is wearing Chads crazy pants but his face looks a little different.
See what I mean?

I am pretty confident that that is my hind end at the left of the picture though.

The chain is twisted and I have my chest on the swing seat.

As a general rule I hate and have always hated to be dizzy.

Peer pressure and youth would win out from time to time and I would give it a shot.
If I were gonna get dizzy or have the potential to be dizzy I would prefer to have it happen on the swing.
I was in control of the swing and could stop myself at any

••••••••••

Swings were great fun.
It was the closet thing to flight as a kid.
Swing as high as you could and free fall back down, rise again and fall back in reverse.

Sometimes I was an astronaut experiencing weightlessness as the chain went slack and for a slight moment I hung in the middle of the air, weightless.

Other times I was in the army and the swing was my parachute.
At my elementary school we had a cloth-rubbery type swing that hugged you between the chains.
This was perfect for parachuting.
I would swing as high as I could and while in the full back position and hovering ever so slightly I would jump out of the seat.

That is right. I, and my friends, would jump out of the swing just before inertia pulled you forward again.
So while at the height of your swing you would push out on the chains giving you the slack you needed and jump out.
As you fell back forward and down the swing would go up behind you ever so slightly.
Time this perfect and you would catch the swing in your arm pits and grab hold of the chain just like a soldier hanging from a parachute.

Next came the tricky part.
You had to pull your feet in front of you to "Land" your chute or you would be dragged across the ground.
No good soldier wanted to be drug across the ground. Land it right soldier!
My knees still show the evidence that this soldier missed his landing a few times.

•••••••••••

Swings were great to jump out of in the forward direction too.
We went for distance and not height in this competetion.
We would take turns standing to watch for distance and then mark the farthest jump with a stick.
This event usually ended with some sort of injury for someone.
Ankles, legs and tailbones were prone be suffer.
Occasionally someone would get stuck in the swing and be dragged backward and suffer the fate of a bad soldier landing incorrectly. Ouch!

•••••••••

Last time I tried to swing it made me feel dizzy so I quit. :(

4 comments:

Unknown said...

hmmm...funny. Who would have thought Batman doesn't like to be dizzy. Well we all have our "Kryptonite" lol P.s. I don't think I want you teaching my girls how to swing, not sure I'm ready for all that!

Brian B said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Brian B said...

Come on it would be exciting!

Grace loves it when I play "Trotty horse" with her and make fall down so she will love to swing Uncle Crazy style!!!

Brian Ashmore said...

Man, I HATE to be dizzy, too... and, unfortunately, I'm prone to it. Swings do it to me, these days... being a passenger in a car does it to me, sometimes. Stinks.

Great, great post. You described the fun of playing on a swing perfectly. I hadn't really thought about it but it really was quite a bit like flying. You could pump your legs and get so high that it felt like you could fall out backwards at the peak.