I love County Fair season in Minnesota:  the smells of cotton candy, popcorn and 4-H animals waft through the air.

A few years ago I took my nephews, Charlie and Josh to the local fair.  We had a grand time taking in the sights as we ambled toward our ultimate goal, the Midway.  When we arrived at the giant slide, both sets of eyes lit up.  They wanted to ride down that big yellow slide.

I was skeptical.  Charlie, about 14 at the time, is autistic and not very coordinated. Josh, a few years younger and always trustworthy, said he’d help him get on the gunny sack and follow him down.  So it was agreed.  Up the long flight of stairs they trudged.

When they got to the top, Charlie seemed to be having second thoughts, but he listened to Josh’s instructions and threw his gunny sack down.  He barely had time to sit before he started his quick descent to the bottom.  One shoe came off half way down and he got a little burn when he tipped sideways and ran his arm down the metal slide, but he made it down safely.  Josh didn’t fare as well.

In his effort to catch Charlie, he threw down his gunny sack but overshot it when he jumped.  He took off ahead of the sack and went down the slide sideways almost tumbling over at the bottom.  Kids were laughing and his dignity was in shambles.  As we walked away, Josh muttered, “That wasn’t one of my better ideas.”

We’ve probably all reflected after the fact “that wasn’t one of my better ideas“, but it takes a lot of unsuccessful ideas to come up with one really great one.

Want to catch a ride on a big yellow slide?  Click here!