A couple of years ago, my Mother asked me to clean out an area of her basement we referred to as “the closet”. It was this partially walled off area in our unfinished where we shoved large item that we no longer used, but for some reason did not want to throw away. I found all sorts of treasure down there that weekend, but one of the more shocking pieces I pulled from twisted mess of basement junk was a slide that my Mother had gotten for me at a Flea Market when I was a kid.

I say shocking, because I remember this thing well. I would climb up the ladder and slide down it again and again for hours at a time. In my mind it was a towering piece of Disney’s Magic Kingdom that somehow found its way to my family’s yard. In reality it was tiny! It barely came up to my waste. I remember pulling it out and just staring at it in disbelief.

Knowing how small it was, didn’t diminish the fun I had on it as a kid. But seeing it through adult’s eyes sort of ruined my image of it and I think this is one of those rare instance where I would have preferred to not rediscover a childhood toy.