CALEDONIA — In this heat, a giant water slide can”t stay hidden for long.
On Monday, the Home Run Grill restaurant in Caledonia set up a giant, inflatable water slide on the north side of the building for people to cool down as summer starts to heat up.
The restaurant opened on Wolfe Road in February and serves the normal fried fare. The owner, Rod Taylor, put up the slide to attract business.
“He thought it would be good with (Ola J. Pickett Park) next to us,” said Yvonne Hearn, the manager at the Home Run Grill. “A lot of our business comes from the park, and he just thought it would give the kids something to do.”
At $5 per hour or $15 for the whole day, the water slide has been popular. On Wednesday, Hearn said, in the three days it had been open, 24 people had stopped by to cool off. And many stayed for dinner.
“A lot of people like our fried pickles and fried green tomatoes,” she said. “We”ve also got bloomin” onions now.”
What”s more, the slide gives area kids a reason to go outside instead of staying indoors.
“In Caledonia, there are a lot of kids out here and not a lot to do,” Hearn said.
For James Phelps, who brought his son and daughter to the slide on Wednesday, nearby creeks are the only other alternative, but he doesn”t feel comfortable going there with his kids because there are frequent fights.
“I come out here as much as I can,” he said. “It”s the best thing around, except for the river, and I can”t take my kids there.”
Phelps” mother-in-law, Meredith “Sissy” Shane, recently moved to the Golden Triangle from Tennessee, and said she was surprised at the absence of public pools.
“We spend every summer in the sun,” she said. “As soon as the weather allows it, we”re in the water, but we just moved here, and I didn”t know what we were going to do.”
Shane was happily surprised when she found the water slide.
“See if you can go anywhere else and pay $15 for all the kids and have as much fun,” she said. “My favorite way to exit the slide is to just bounce right out of the end. It”s great exercise, too.”
Donnie Speed of Caledonia brought two of his seven grandchildren with him.
“This is our first time,” Speed said. “We were just passing by.”
While Speed”s grandson Drew Wright, 7, went down the slide again and again, his other grandson, Brody Wright, 6, nursed an injury. He had banged his leg on a rock after jumping over the slide”s inflatable wall. Brody used a towel to cover his knee where there was a spot of blood about the size of a pinprick.
“He wasn”t minding,” Speed smiled.
The boys, who live in Foley, Ala., with their parents, were visiting for the week to escape the spilled oil from British Petroleum”s Deepwater Horizon rig.
“They can already smell that oil,” Speed said. “Now the water is messed up, so they can”t go to the beach. We”ve got a little kiddie pool in the back yard for them.”
Drew estimated that he went at least 10 miles an hour down the slide. He said he has three or four tricks in his repertoire.
“There”s ”popcorn,”” he said, brushing off his sandy legs. “You get in a ball, Indian-style, when you go down.”
“When we do the popcorn, we can go faster,” Brody piped up.
After sliding, they planned to go home and play video games on their Nintendo Gamecube gaming console.
“I couldn”t play it, but they do pretty good,” Speed said.
But for the time being, playing in the water was all that was on their minds. Trying to take his little brother”s mind of his hurt knee, Drew suggested a race to the slide.
“Come on, Brody,” he said. “Last one there”s a rotten clam!”
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