Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/07/28/slip-n-slide-is-all-sold-out.html
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I work at UPS, as such it’s been somewhat interesting watching the trends of what people have been ordering.
Things like this, alongside swimming pools, gardening equipment and music equipment EXPLODED in popularity during the lockdown.
Things are starting to quiet down now, we’re down to near our xmas-rush december levels of busy (for what would normally be the quietest time of the year) compared to the utter insanity of the past few months…
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90’s kid reporting in to say… those things sucked. I tried sliding on them once and messed up my back for an entire weekend.
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any reports on duncan yo-yo sales?
The great thing about a slip-n-slide is that you can easily hack together your own using stuff from the hardware store. And 8mil plastic sheeting is available in REALLY long lengths, so if you’ve got a grassy hill with a hose bib nearby you can have a GREAT time.
The secret, of course, it throwing some dish soap down at the start; this prevents the dreaded “dry spot skin-grab”.
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Toilet paper, disinfectant wipes, yeast, coins, slip’n’slides. Yeah, that seems like a logical progression.
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Mayonnaise sales are up too… connection?
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This. My dad figured out that it was a colored sheet of poly when I was 8 years old.
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My wife works retail at a gardening store. It used to be part-time, but now it’s 10 hour shifts because everyone wants to do that while stuck at home (“agricultural center” so necessary job). I do SW dev so I’m WFH all day but my two kids are going crazy. Summer camps all got canceled so we were lucky enough to nab a cheep pool before they all sold out!
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I remember, when I was six or so, some of the older kids grabbed some large corrugated plastic bits from beside a dumpster.
We used the hose from my house and started sliding away. That’s how I learned about fiberglass. Oh, the itching.
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Fun weirdness from the lockdown: The clash between my mother and i.
She’s been going stir crazy stuck at home and demanding to be taken out for walks. Whereas i’m being worked to the bone and crave nothing but staying home and not going outside when given the chance 
Managed to palm some of it off onto my brother, but geeze it’s been difficult at times
That said, i must admit to being one of the luckier ones on lockdown, it’s just i want a break! 
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I went camping for the first time in forever last week and was unable to find an inflatable sleeping pad to save my life. Wound up settling for a no name brand one off Amazon that broke a seam midway through the first night.
I should also note that the campsite had rules regarding max 6 people/2 tents per site that was promptly ignored by everyone but us. It was much crazier than I expected.
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Hear hear. My family farm is also host to an evangelical Christian summer camp. There’s a huge, evenly inclined hill by the mess hall. When I was around 10, they installed some sort of extremely thick liner. They probably went through 100 bottles of dish soap a summer. It was still there last time I visited, but it looks like they replaced the original black liner with a white one.
Our friends did this in their front yard, and the kids and adults took turns sliding down it all day. A fun time was had by all.
Let this classic Amazon review be a warning of mixing Slip 'N Slide with 55 gallon drums of lube…
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That was an entertaining read. 
He didn’t respect the power of lube. Owning hardwood floors and having on more than one occasion managed to get lube on the bottoms of my feet – I respect the lube… now.
Oh and of course, this is a good excuse to repost Burt.
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80’s kid reporting in to say…you were either doing it wrong or they went down in quality or maybe both. Slip 'N Slide rocked!
My dad was a cheapo. He had some old black plastic sheeting lying around, probably really old stuff. Laid it down, watered it down, and me and my sister slipped, slided, and got all cut up from the small tears in the plastic. We never got a ‘real’ slip-n-slide. I never had a big wheel when I was a kid, neither.
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owwwwwie. I feel that on a visceral level.
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Stores were all out here; managed to find one on amazon from a Completely Reputable seller (other items sold in his “shop” were athletic shoes and coach purses-- I couldn’t tell if it was a “fell off the truck” or just predatory pricing).
There were a number of slip n’ slides available that way; 2-3 x market value (or more), private sellers, and delivery times of about a month.
