High School : The Rope Swing

This was our muse, our sports car, our cliffs of insanity, Hamlet's skull, the Baron's trees, the Lightness of Being. This was the rope swing.

Only a few hundred meters from my parent's polished house in an upper-middle class neighborhood, this legendary spectacle attracted rednecks and red bellies alike. Some would even run down the impossibly steep hill - through the poison ivy and rotting beer cans, jump and grab the rope - do back flips and dives. The rednecks became gods of acrobatics before our eyes, snarling chuckles from swiny toothed grins, squinting through cataracted eyes.

We found common ground in this sphere of immitation suicide, nearly getting pummeled ourselves. One time Phil got his foot caught and nearly landed on the rocks below. Another time I didn't let go and smashed into the tree on the return. Clearly, this was no civic center diving board.

Category:

Entertainment

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• ridge
• tennessee
• melton
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• lake
• norris
• river
• marina
• rope
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• allen