There used to be a water park in my hometown that had a bunch of slides and a wave pool. I used to go there all the time as a kid, and even went there as a senior on a trip. I went to birthday parties there, sometimes.

It closed in 2020 and never reopened because they had apparently been avoiding paying bills for years. It wasn’t just the pandemic. It was visible from the freeway, so I watched it slowly being demolished over the next couple years any time I passed by.

I haven’t found a water park that really compared to it yet. Most are either too small or part of a larger theme park, which is fine. It just seemed like the fact that it exclusively was a water park allowed it to focus more on the atmosphere and types of slides it had.

  • Rainbows@kbin.social
    3·
    1 year ago

    Those wooden playgrounds. There was one I went to all the time as a kid. It was so much fun and had all kinds of rooms and nooks and crannies to play in. It got replaced with a generic plastic playground at some point, I think for safety reasons.

  • Yewb@kbin.social
    3·
    1 year ago

    The Texas from my childhood, most Texans dont give a shit about identity politics, you would think there are a bunch of brown hating cowboys - that was not the case Texas was incredibly tolerant.

  • ivanvector@kbin.social
    2·
    1 year ago

    You perfectly described a water park in my home town, although mine closed down in the 1990s. It had a “silver bullet” slide, a bunch of conventional slides and a tube slide, a lazy river, a wave pool, a pretty decent arcade and a go-kart track, and probably a bunch of other stuff I don’t remember from spending big chunks of my childhood summers there. Birthday parties and school trips, too.

    After it closed down, some of the slides were moved to a golf course across town that wanted to expand, but it wasn’t as good and it was way too far to go by bus. The original park is the loading dock for a Home Depot now.

    • Hanhula@kbin.social
      2·
      1 year ago

      I feel that. Went back home for a visit last year and so much has changed. It’s bizarre, feeling disconnected from where I live and yet like home has moved on without me.

  • Clairvoidance@kbin.social
    2·
    1 year ago

    MY HOUSE
    Had to get demolished to make way for a lightrail
    kinda cool to have the key to a place that no longer exists at least

  • BarrierWithAshes@kbin.social
    1·
    1 year ago

    You can’t step in the same river twice. ~ Heraclitus.

    I’m just glad I realized this early as I did. I made sure to cherish each place, knowing full well it would eventually disappear.

  • Sassygumsquatch@kbin.social
    1·
    1 year ago

    There was a roller skating rink called “Sweet Feet” that I had two birthday parties in but it collapsed sometime in middle school and was never rebuilt.

  • Haunting_Tale_5150@kbin.social
    1·
    1 year ago

    There used to be a very janky waterslides on a hilltop that closed down. The place was notorious for giving kids scrapes and bruises and other injuries for years, my parents were surprised it hadn’t closed earlier.

  • Monola19@kbin.social
    1·
    1 year ago

    My elementary school closed down a few years back. They had a small reunion with any students that attended before they closed for good. It was a definite blast from the past as there were a few teachers that still worked there and many of my old classmates attended. Unfortunately, I didn’t receive the news until after they already shut down but I was able to see pictures on Facebook.

  • EmptyRadar@kbin.social
    1·
    1 year ago

    I’m getting old enough now where this is true for multiple things, but the ones that come to mind would be my schools - 2 of the 3 schools I attended have since been demolished. My high school is still standing, but the elementary and Junior High schools are gone now.