Forest Park is a place of great delights. Some of the fun I have shared here (TheJewel Box), other fun perhaps was over shadowed (Shakespeare in the Park). A few weeks ago, I discovered another center of joy in Forest Park – Art Hill.
Art Hill is a grassy expanse of lawn that separates the Art
Museum from the Grand Basin. The first
afternoon that I came upon the Hill, I was escaping the air-conditioning in
order to enjoy the summer heat. The Hill was
covered in gigantic paper cranes. The
cranes had been battered by a thunderstorm, but it was still an incredible
sight.
This last weekend, a friend and I joined in with several
hundred other people in an attempt to break the record for most people doing a
somersault at the same time. A
bit before 2pm, people began gathering on Art Hill, covering the hillside like
the cranes had a few weeks before.
Typical of Forest Park, a complete cross section of Saint
Louis was represented. Some people had
read about the event in the paper, others were just wandering by and decided to
check out the excitement. Lots of
families with small children, a whole squad of cheerleaders, and the random
bicyclist were ready to go rolling down the hill, grass stains and all.
We stood around on the hill in reasonably neat lines for 45 minutes or so waiting
for the signal to roll. I think that
they were waiting as long as possible in order to get as many people to roll as
they could. The official record that we
were trying to break was 835 people.
When the air horn went off, we all went tumbling head over
heels down the hill. Thankfully, it was
not in the best tradition of Jack and Jill, and everyone’s crowns came out
intact, if somewhat disheveled.
Sadly, according to the paper, we did not manage to break
the record. However, the fun of joining
700+ of my fellow Forest Park fanatics for a roll down Art Hill was worth the
trip out.
About the cranes: http://www.stltoday.com/suburban-journals/metro/life/backstopper-fundraiser-on-art-hill-raises/article_d271424e-e438-5a6a-9fb5-0b011d75f17e.html
You are having tooooo much fun. Great action photo.
ReplyDeleteBetter than sitting in my apartment, eating ice cream out of the container, and watching House reruns. :)
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