The Things that Entertained Us: The Skyslide

The Sky slide, remember that? In my minds eye, I recall a huge orange slide, with grooves that separated the different ‘sliding lanes’. I remember standing in line and walking up a huge flight of stairs for a chance to slide down the Sky slide. I remember sitting on a shaggy carpet square as I took my flight down the slide. Its wavy design would make my stomach leap at each new rise, and would then deliver me to the bottom in a heap…woosh! But it is a vague memory, clouded with romantic nostalgia of my childhood.

Just what was the “Sky slide”? Imagine a park slide, blown up to huge proportions and painted in bright rainbow colors. This was the stuff of childhood memories growing up in the 1970’s on Oahu. The Sky slide was a kiddie slide that all the local children would flock to, with their parents in tow. Such simple pleasures of long ago.

When I was growing up, there were two Sky slides. One was a blue Sky slide located in Waipahu, and the other, a rainbow colored Sky slide located in the parking lot near Gibson’s in Mapunapuna, that was later repainted orange.

When did it first open? How much did a ride cost? What are your Sky slide memories?

Photo Credit: Julia’s Mexico City