Children
running around your neighborhood can often be observed during the blistering
summer days playing football, riding bikes, and occasionally attending a
friend’s birthday party. This day happens to be the day of a party held next
door in the neighbor’s front yard. From the inside of my grandparent’s house
you could hear the parent’s chattering, the dog barking, and the laughter of children. Curious as to what all was going on
next door. I walked out onto the front porch where I took in the aroma of
barbecue, fresh cut grass, and smoke of the smoldering coal. I continue off the
porch coming in contact with the scorching asphalt as its radiant heat rises
past my ankles. Leaves ruffling as the wind blows passing through the trees. The
adults gather around socializing with one another while enjoying a nice cold
beer and taking drags off their cigarettes. Very few took on the role to cook
and prep everyone food for when it came time to eat.
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| http://www.thesafestline.com/summer-safety-tips-preventing-heat-exhaustion/ |
A single water
sprinkler was set out in the yard, which we referred to as our cool down
station. It was set up near an ice chest full of sodas,
juices, and water bottles. I plopped down on the ice chest as the water sprinkler
continued back and forward, slowly reducing my body temperature with each pass. Across
the yard I notice my little brother and cousin picking wild berries and storing
them in a make shift kangaroo pouch using their shirts. I rush over to join
them in the gathering until our pouches were soon full. We then made our way to
the children’s table where we prepared our self for vanilla cake and ice creme.
Adding to our desert, we topped it off with our berries we had gathered up earlier. As we then start to discuss
about jumping in the moonwalk, we were suddenly brought to a halt by a wondering parent informing us to wait thirty dreadful minutes to settle our stomach. Now
we all were really anxious and our anticipation was growing. Then the time came when we
all bolted towards the moonwalks entrance. Moments after, our laughter was trying to overpower each other as we were literally bouncing off the walls. The wobbling of the moonwalk was just too much for the intake line to handle, causing it to remove
itself from the air blower and rapidly deflating the moonwalk. Children bring about
yelling and screaming off the top off their lungs for as we are now about to be
engulfed by what had once brought us joy, but has now put fear in us all.
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| http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9WXA1ju8pGl/hqdefault.jpg |
Light
from the entrance way set about to seal itself completely shut as another boy and
I managed to escape. The rest were all still trapped inside clinging on to the
netted wall, gasping for air as they press their faces through the net.
Reacting quick as I did I managed to reset the intake house to the air blower,
but when I flipped the switch to the on position there was still no power. No time to waste I
traced down the extension cord where I found it had come to be unplugged and laying on the ground.
Finally as I plugged in the extension cord there it went, I could now hear the air blower kick back on and see the moonwalk inflate for the children to exit. As each child begins to climb
out I notice their sweat, tears, and running nose from the
terrifying incident. This whole time not one parent responded to the
cries out for help, nor did anyone claim to see or hear the event even
take place. For this reason is why I strongly encourage others to always expect
the unexpected as I do and keep an eye out on your surroundings.