the best time I had as a kid was using a car innertube from the tires or if really lucky a MAC truck innertube

[debm55]

With the MAC truck, tire innertubes you could fit 4 friends on it and sit and pounce in the water. Does anyone remember?: The only bad thing was when it got really sunny and hot the tubes got really hot.

[peachpit24]

1. Lots of fun

When I was a kid friends and family would get together at wamplers lake in Michigan. Someone would bring a truck inner tube. One person would lay in it and older guys would get around and throw it in the air. It would come down with a big splash with you in it. It was the best part of the day. What memories.

[debm55]

3. Thank you peachpit24. They were great memories.

[Walleye]

2. I can almost smell that big inner tube, and see the red rubber patches that were put on it

[debm55]

4. Thank you Walleye. YES! the smell and the patches. Love it.

[Klarkashton]

5. Sounds a lot more fun than a video game.

[debm55]

6. It really was. I so enjoyed. And there were contests on who could stand the longest on it before falling off.

[Klarkashton]

7. Oh that sounds so right. As the fun continues

Rules and contests are spontaneously created.
Pure joy.

[debm55]

8. Yes it was pure joy.

[kimbutgar]

9. When I was attending college in Chico, Ca we would go tubing in Butte creek a part of the Sacramento River

I loved going down that creek and experiencing going fast in areas with more active currents and then just mellow waters. Someone would have an extra tube tied to their tube that carried an ice chest of beer and water!

[debm55]

10. Oh, kimbutgar, that sounds great and fun. TY

[kacekwl]

11. We used to get

inside the center of a truck tube and roll downhill on the beach into the water. Just watch out for the valve stem it likes to scratch. Also got four kids on and lock hands and rock on the water singing "Rocka my soul in the bosom of Abraham" until you fall off.

[debm55]

16. Thank you, kacekwl, Yes, those air valve things hurt when you landed on one.

[Dem2theMax]

12. Individual inner tubes.

And the Kern River. Have no idea why my parents allowed us to do it, because the Kern River can be dangerous. I was a very strong swimmer. My brother, on the other hand -- why the heck was he allowed to do that?

Also, inner tubes in the winter in the snow.

Our very first time in the snow, my brother took an inner tube straight into the back end of the rusty bumper of a parked car. There went our first visit to the snow. Off to the emergency room we went, where he got stitches and a permanent scar through one of his eyebrows. I was so mad at him for ruining my day in the snow!

[OldBaldy1701E]

14. Yep. We called it 'suicide sledding'.

With no way to control the tube, one had to hope there was nothing to hit. When one lived in a suburban/urban area, that was impossible. When I was living in the boonsticks, I enjoyed tube sledding. Not so much when there are bumpers at perfect head height. Using them on the water was relatively safer. Which is not saying a whole lot... heh.

[Dem2theMax]

15. Your screen name.

We were at Mount Baldy when my brother went into the bumper!

[debm55]

17. Thank you, Dem2theMax. Sorry about your brother. Yes they did serve double duty--summer and winter.

[pansypoo53219]

13. we had a vintage styrofoam ivory bar of soap we could swim w/. did not get hot. but it wasn't very big.

[debm55]

18. Thank you pansypoo53219. Was that the large bar you had to cut to make smaller bars?

[pansypoo53219]

25. don't think so. faint ivory on it. wonder if its still up north.

[debm55]

26. TY

[ProfessorGAC]

19. My Inner Tube Story

I went to a HS that didn't a track. I was a high jumper & long jumper.
Practicing the high jump, all we could do was take a few ancient wrestling Matt's, then put a couple farm tractor interludes, the a couple more matts.on top.
In my freshman year (I was 5' tall), I was only clearing 4'11" to 5'2".
By my sophomore year, I was clearing 5'11" and falling that extra foot started to hurt.
In my junior year I was clearing nearly 6'6", and the impact didn't hurt a little. It flat out hurt. The inner tube were close to useless. So, I wasn't able to practice any longer. Just went to meets and jumped as high as I could!

[debm55]

20. Thank you so much for your post.ProfessorGAC. Good for you for continuing to jump.

[jmowreader]

21. Oh dude, you have no idea

The best inner tubes come from earthmovers, log skidders and other heavy machinery. WAY bigger than a truck tire inner tube.

Tire 6 in this video shows you how big they are.

[debm55]

22. Thank you, jmowreader. Interesting video. My husband worked for the Bureau of Mines. He told me once that landmovers

would be built on site and left there. This was many years ago and was in ND and Wyoming. Open pit mines.We have a picture of him standing next to a vechicle where the wheels were taller that him and he is 6ft.

[Clouds Passing]

23. I used to roll down a steep hill crunched up in a car tire.

Loved doing the tube rocking in the pool too, especially with a big truck tube! We’d make giant waves! We always flipped the tube when it got hot.

[debm55]

24. Thank you, Clouds Passing. We did the same. I loved having a group and all sitting on it. And bouncing up and down

making waves in the water.