The Superior Express -

Over the years, the Superior Chamber of Commerce has coordinated a number of late summer, early fall activities.

There have been parades, car shows, watermelon feeds, barbecues, free movies, both professional and amateur entertainment, dunk tanks, water fights and at least once a magician’s show,

This year the chamber hit it over the top with the portable water park. I didn’t know such existed but it was the kind of activity the late summer event has long needed. For the youngsters returning to school it was a fitting way to end the summer and old timers enjoyed watching them play.

I was told it cost the sponsors about $2,000 to bring the four water slides and water guns to Superior. tt was worth it.

Some of the youngsters played in the water the entire four hours the park was open.

The slides were open to people of all ages and a few adults joined the youngsters, They got wet and perhaps spoiled their hairdos. So what! They had fun and their youngsters were thrilled to have adults playing with them.

The youngsters will long remember the day. For some, I suspect, it was the highlight of their summer vacation.

I don’t think water slides existed when I was a youngster but I remember going to the Republican River to play in the water with my parents. When I was a youngster, Dad would put one of the round stock tanks he had for sale at the station, in the back yard of our home so I could use it as a kiddie pool. I don’t remember playing in it much by myself, but I remember how much fun it was on a hot afternoon in those pre-air conditioner days to sit in the tank of water with my mother. Our well didn’t deliver enough pressure to run a sprinkler but I was envious of town youngsters who could play in lawn sprinklers on hot summer days.

At least once when I attended country school, the pupils were allowed to bring their water pistols to school. I took my favorite pistol. It had a tube which connected to a supply tank belted to my waist. It was nice because it didn’t have to be reloaded frequently.

Now youngsters have much more powerful guns.

For a church youth group activity, I helped the youngsters build water “cannons.” The cannons required various lengths and diameters of pvc pipe and hydraulic cylinder leathers. I appreciate the guys at Superior Implement who supplied the hydraulic cylinder leathers. Though their parts books didn’t list water cannon parts, they patiently searched through their inventory to find the right parts needed.

Saturday afternoon, I wished I had made one of those cannons for myself. Probably good I didn’t for if I had one at home, I would have been tempted to get it and take a few shots at the dry parents watching their youngsters play in the water.

As a high school student, I enjoyed playing a modified volleyball game. teams used blankets to flip water filled balloons over the net. No one seemed to mind when splattered by a bursting balloon.

In preparation for a picnic in another community’s park, my father helped me build boats which we youngsters could play with. It was a simple design. Dad helped me cut boats out of flat boards, A V was cut in the stern, with notches on each side to hold the rubber bands made from old inner tubes. An ice cream bar stick served as a propeller. The propeller was wound up in the bands. When the boats were placed in the water and released the spinning propeller sent the boats scooting across the surface. Perhaps the best part of all was getting to wade into the small pools of water to retrieve the boats which ran out of power before reaching shore.

Friends who tell of using irrigation canal chutes as slides. Water trickling down the chutes promotes moss growth which slickens the rough concrete. They advise before trying one of the chutes one should be wearing old jeans for the concrete acts like sandpaper.

Thankfully Saturday’s sliders didn’t have to worry about that kind of surface. The blowups had naturally slick surfaces to slide on.

One woman I encouraged to go sliding on Saturday, refused. She told me if I knew how hard it was to fix her hair, I would never suggest she get it wet.

It makes me sad to think appearance keeps some people from having a good time.

Which brings to mind the mother and daughter I encountered one summer day at Lovewell Lake. They were looking over my Windsurfer with interest and I offered to let them ride it.

They were hesitant at first because they planned to eat out on the way home from the lake. As we talked, they decided it would be okay to get their clothes wet as long as they didn’t ruin their hairdos. They planned to just sit on the board and paddle it like a kayek.

Caught in a boat’s wake, they rolled the board and got more than their clothes wet. Their husband and father was not happy to come in from fishing and find his supper guests looking like “drowned rats.”

I don’t know if they got to eat out that night or not for I never talked to them again---hopefully, they weren’t mad at me for letting them ride the Windsurfer.

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In the years before the schools stole a month of summer, August was a popular time for vacations and special activities. Fairs were held in August. I got to go to church camp the last week of August. Swimming pools opened on Memorial Day and closed on Labor Day. Some pools offered free swimming on either the opening or closing day. Some communities offered free swimming both days.

When I left Superior for college, the dorms opened on Sept. 13. The next two or three days were reserved for class registration and classes began about Sept. 17.

The semester ended in mid-January and the break between semesters was only a handful of days. The spring semester ended in late May and summer school started the first week of June.

I never started school until Labor Day or later.

Minnesota has a strong tourism industry. Because the tourist industry needs student workers, state law prohibits the start of school until after Labor Day.

This week I received a news release from the Nebraska game commission reporting a number of the commission’s facilities across the state have been closed because of the lack of student help.

Perhaps Nebrraska should copy the Minnesota law.