Rapids Ahead

Summer fun has begun

One of our most treasured summertime activities was known as "Shooting the Rapids." It all began one day when Paul and I were walking in front of the Orem Public Library. It was hot and there used to be a sizable ditch that ran the north and west edges of the library property. We thought that the ditch resembled a water slide and so we jumped in and were not swept away. We had to do most of the ambulating ourselves by scooting along. We were somewhat refreshed, though the rocks which we passed over were not the most enjoyable. We returned on a handful of occasions to enjoy this free water slide. We invited several others to join us, but they were more sane than we were and chose to refrain.

On one excursion we decided to make the ride as long as possible. So we followed the ditch to it's source and enjoyed several more yards of fun. We began to wonder where the water was coming from and that's when the Orem Irrigation Canal caught our attention. We immediately jumped in and floated for many feet before we realized it would be severally more enjoyable if we had something to float on. We acquired some inner tubes and went back to the canal where we floated for a while, but what we realized was that we had to get out every time the canal ran under a street. We weren't low enough to ride under the streets. And many of the streets were fenced off which meant we would have to climb out of the canal, climb over a fence, run across the street, climb over another fence and then back into the canal. Another hitch in the program was that after riding a ways on the canal we would end up several miles from home. We would usually walk home but it was very time consuming.

Eventually we came up with the idea of riding air mattresses. This solved the problem of having to get out each time we came to a street. Now we could lay flat on our bellies and glide underneath the streets. It was always an exercise in agility under the streets. We would have to steer out of the way of dangling spiders and webs and press our heads down into the air mattress pillows to keep from scraping our heads.

One time we decided to go under a street head first on our backs. This prevented us from being able to avoid spiders and such-like. When we came out the other side we both jumped up with a serious case of the heebie jeebies. I asked Paul if I had any spiders on me and spun around for an examination. He declared me spider-free and as he began to ask me if he had spiders on him I watched as an enormous spider crawled up his leg, across his stomach and started making it's way toward his neck. I could only point at it as it moved it's way upward and my slack jaw made Paul realize the treat he was experiencing. He dropped into the water and splashed around trying to get the spider off of him. We don't know what kind of spider it was but we had seen black widows on previous excursions. We were taking no chances. Except for the one where we went head first on our backs under a street.

This activity, as stated previously, came to be known as "Shooting the Rapids." Each time we would drive over the Orem Canal I would feign loss of control of the car I was driving and pretend it was due to the severely rapid waters we had just crossed over. We would yell "Watch out! We're crossing the rapids!" The water was very not rapid, by the way.

By the time Paul had his driver's license we were getting in the rapids at the point where it initially came out from under the road and exiting at 1200 north. That's something like 2 miles as the crow flies. We developed a system where we would both drive to 1200 north and leave my car parked by the canal. Then I would get in his car and we would drive to the beginning of the rapids, ride the rapids to 1200 north, get out of the canal and eat the "Lahlberries" (which I think were actually blackberries) that were growing at the bank of the canal there, then get in my car and drive back to Paul's car. This usually took several hours and was very relaxing and enjoyable.

The last time we shot the rapids was on the night before school started one year. After midnight. It was unpleasant. The canyon wind was blowing. We only got about 5 blocks before we gave up and walked home. We were very wet and cold as we walked a long long way back home.