party

[low_delta]

It was our friends' daughter's eight grade graduation, so they had a party. Good enough excuse for a party, I guess. But I wish I hadn't forgotten my camera. Two things.

One was a water balloon fight. They had a couple buckets of them. Three girls, the graduate being the oldest. Whomever filled the balloons used regular baloons, and not water baloon baloons. They didn't break. So this fight consisted of *smack* "ow!" *smack* "ow!" *smack* "ow!" It was the funniest damn thing! *smack* "ow!"

The party was in Lime Kiln Park, in Grafton. The park is bordered by the Milwaukee River, and there's an old dam. Cindy and I went for a walk around the park, and the kids were swimming below the dam! I thought, "this isn't good." You hear all the stories about people getting sucked under because of the turbulence at the base of dams. But there they were. The two girls were just swimming around, and the two boys were jumping off the top (probably about eight feet high, from the top of the dam to the water below). I saw the older one do a backflip. So I was watching for a little bit, and they were all having fun. Then these two older boys came over, and they seemed like they wanted to go in, but were skeptical that it was safe. They seemed more concerned about shallow water than an eddy, though. They asked the boys how deep it was and one of them said he wasn't able to touch bottom. One of them finally went out (probably having something to do with a kid half his age out there), and the other joined him a couple of jumps later.

Then the girls' mother came down and was a little mad at them not only for swimming in their clothes, but being in the water at all. "This is why there are chain link fences and NO SWIMMING signs." *grin*

Damn, I wish I'd had the camera.

Comments

[vocalista001.livejournal.com]

Those are summer memories, for sure.

Why DO they have no swimming signs there? is it dangerous at some times of the year?

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

The water was low, since it's been so dry. I remember walking out on the top of that dam when I was a kid (and couldn't even swim), when the water was low. In the spring, when the water is high, it's unbelievable. It's maybe four feet from the top of teh dam to the water below. And instead of a couple insches deep at the top, it's a couple of feet deep going over. Your body might not even come back out for hours. Today it even looked pretty dangerous, but I guess it wasn't. Although I heard a kid say that there was a ledge at the bottom of the dam that you had to jump past. Maybe that's what kept the current safer. At one point, the kid was standing under the falls, and the water was splashing off his head. No, it really wasn't that strong a current.

How did I miss this post?

[mummm.livejournal.com]

What fun! NEVER travel without a camera. I think that is why I am in love with my new cellphone. (instant camera)

But yes, swimming below a dam is DANGEROUS.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

They all lived. If I had been there when they first went in, I would have forbidden it, but they were in the water and alive when I showed up, so I left them to it.