Tommy's Fantastic Ride On The Rope Swing

While playing on various things at Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, Tommy did his ride on the swing. It was something we had done with Jack, but we should have waited until this trip. I have it on film on a blog from another trip to Disneyland, but it scared Jack a little when he jumped free at the end. Before he could exit the area, the swing swung back and bumped him to the ground.

Tommy climbed aboard while the ranger held the swing in place, and then he went to the bottom without a problem. Doing it a year later would have been better for Jack, but seeing Tommy do it so well this time will hopefully motivate him to try it again.

Tommy's smile is what I enjoy in this picture, and it is the type of ride that I would have enjoyed at that age too. We didn't have Disneyland, but we had an area we called the Jungle. It was an overgrown area of weeds and willows surrounding a small stream, where we climbed trees and anything else we could find, hunted for frogs and crawfish, and swung across the stream on any swings we could find there too. The entire neighborhood used the area, which was behind the IGA store that Grandpa Thomas owned in Malad. As an adult, the most challenging part was knowing not to fall in the creek, which many used as an open sewer. Oh, the days when the EPA didn't rob us of our freedom. After my brief return to sarcasm, I will always wonder how we survived as children, playing in polluted streams like that, throwing snowballs and actually playing baseball during recesses and lunch hours, and riding bikes and skating on ice or cement without helmets. I am glad I lived during those simple times, although I do wish I had known about that stream.