A Long Tumble

#4 - Down the Sand Dune

One of the coolest things to see in my home state are the sand dunes of Lake Michigan. We took a family vacation there when I was little, like 5 or 6. We stayed in a cabin, swam, saw lighthouses and such. One day, all of us kids really wanted to take a couple-mile hike to this lighthouse that we hadn't seen before. This was a hike through sand, with a few trees and beach grass mixed in. I don't know what my parents were thinking consenting to take 4 small children on a (2 or 3 mile?) hike through sand. Anyway, we went and I had a little accident. I remember it mostly from watching it replay on our TV screen over and over and over as, you guessed it, we were watching home videos some random Sunday evening.

You see, I was fatigued and weak, from walking that far through sand when I slipped and tumbled down, head over foot, down about a 30 foot hill. After the series of summer-salts down this dune, I was crushed. I had sand in every orifice of my face, in my hair, eyes, ears, teeth, under my fingernails. Sand was in all my clothes, shoes, socks. It was awful. Not to mention the pain from falling, sliding, tumbling, whatever you want to call it, that far. I was embarrassed too. I cried.

To make matters worse, this (and the ice-skating episode, it was a tie) was my families' favorite home video. They would play it in slow motion over and over, watching me roll down this sand dune. They would have tears in their eyes b/c they thought it was so funny. For many years, I would run off to my room and cry b/c I was so embarrassed that I had such a nasty fall. Then, eventually, I began to laugh too. It was pretty funny, I guess.