River

The seat was harnessed by wires to a parachute, where the four corners of the canvas were attached to vertical guide wires, extending from the ground to the top of a wrought iron tower maybe two hundred feet in the air. The shoot was hoisted up by a winch with the chair dangling freely.

We sat in the chair with our feet swinging in air, and up, up we were pulled, higher and higher, a hundred feet and higher, so that we could see the park below, then all of Chicago and even Lake Michigan. And as we got higher we knew there would come the point of release, until suddenly there was a metallic clank, and the winch release let go. It was free fall and I lost my stomach until the parachute caught in the air, and then we were jerked to a slower decent, but still pretty fast until we hit the bottom with a sound like 'sprong' and a big jounce, followed by lesser bounces, swing and sway. The guide wires were fitted with springs at the bottom so that the stop was not completely abrupt, but cushioned with recoil.

Another ride we might have taken in the morning was called The Chutes. This was a big wooden flat bottom boat (there were a number of them) that could hold 15 or 20 people. Our boat with a full load, cruised through the water down a dark tunnel to a dead-end, with a roofed over shaft ascending high up, that was really a giant elevator. The boat with all of us still in it, was hoisted maybe a hundred feet to the top of a great slide.

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