# Memoir - Outsiders and the Dunk Tank

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Posted by Pete on January 11, 2021 at 04:08:33

In this chapter, I want to cover a couple different things. Let's start with the dunk tank at the annual church carnival.

The church carnival was held each year the Sunday after the 4th of July. After church services, the carnival commenced on the church's large lawn. Reverend Mathias themed it as a "stone soup" event, explaining that while money was tight for everyone in the congregation, each man, woman and child would bring one thing to contribute - be it food, or help with setting up folding chairs and tables, or help cleaning up, or whatever else needed to be done or shared. Overall, I'd say it actually worked pretty well. Reverend Mathias likely called in some favors and secured a donation of hotdogs and hamburgers for everyone, and my parents and some of the more well off families in the congregation would bring big trays of potato salad, pasta salad, cupcakes or brownies.

A lot of the men's contribution was to build the dunk tank, which served as the children's entertainment for the afternoon. And this definitely wasn't one of those bright-colored plastic dunk tanks that you'd rent from a party rental place - those would cost money! Instead, some W.Va. ingenuity was used, along with a variety of scrap material, to construct a "custom" dunk tank. The particular design was different each year, depending on what kinds of materials could be found, and who was in charge of the design. The tank itself was usually a huge corrugated metal tub, maybe 6 feet across and at least 4 feet deep. Various pieces of scrap lumber of metal were used to construct a seat and target. Link's dad was usually instrumental in the construction project - his tow truck was used to haul away cars that crashed around our area, so he was able to build a collection of various hinges, pulleys, odd pieces of metal, and other stuff that they'd make into a dunk tank. There were usually numerous sharp metal and wood edges around the whole contraption, and they'd do their best to cover those with old rags or sponges. The seat was usually perched on the end of a long beam, set several feet above the tank.

Years later, when I started working for a fire department in a bigger town, one of my duties as the "new guy" was to do a turn in the dunk tank at that town's carnival. And the first time I saw it, I laughed - it was obviously one of those blue plastic ones with the clear plastic window on the front of the tank, and the yellow tarp behind the target. I mean, what fun is a dunk tank if the soles of your feet aren't at least 4 feet above the surface of the water, and you don't even have to worry about contracting tetanus from a rusty nail or sharp metal edge?

But back to our little poor town and our home made dunk tank. Understandably, my parents did not permit me to enter the dunk tank until I was old enough - and tall enough - to not immediately drown upon falling into the deep tank. So for the first several years of my life, I resented spending the carnival mostly annoying Cole and my parents, instead of cooling off in the water in the dunk tank. Til one year, finally, my mother relented and gave me permission to go get dunked. I'm not sure if she decided I was finally tall enough to survive the experience, or if she was so tired of me aggravating her that she was hoping I'd drown in the water, but either way, I scampered off excitedly to join the line of kids lined up waiting their turn to get dunked. I dragged Cole along with me, and next thing I knew, I was climbing up a steep stepladder, and scooting my way to the edge of a long wooden beam, to which an old tractor seat was attached, and swung my legs over the water. That time, I don't remember feeling the least bit shy or uncomfortable - even when they got Cole and my parents in line to knock me in the water. I've read a lot of people's experiences here about feeling self conscious or nervous their first time in the dunk tank - maybe even moreso if your parents or family were there. But I honestly loved getting to be at the center of attention for pretty much the whole town, as I got knocked into the tub of cold water over and over again. In fact, one of the high school guys who was supervising us younger kids had to pretty much order me out, so that the next kid could take his turn.

One of the reasons I loved the church carnival dunk tank was because it was the one time I was allowed to wear my "good" clothes into the water. Usually most people wore nicer clothes to church - nothing fancy, but our parents usually insisted on a collared shirt in the summer, a sweater in the winter, and pants or shorts that were at least clean and free of holes or stains. So that was my outfit for that first year, a blue collared shirt, tan shorts, underwear. Cole was wearing a red collared shirt and jeans. (Cole took a turn in the dunk tank too. He wasn't quite as animated as I was, but he seemed to enjoy it as much as he enjoys anything.) Even in following years when my parents must have known that I'd be wanting to go in the dunk tank, they always insisted I wear my "good" clothes to church, and then allowed me to wear them into the dunk tank without any fuss. Any other day of the year, I'd have been prohibited from playing around outside in my good clothes - those were to be kept clean and presentable for as long as possible. So really, this one day a year was quite a treat for me.

In later years, I upped my outfits. One year, my mom had found a nice pair of khaki dress pants in the big bin of 2nd hand clothes, decreed that they would look great on me, and hung them in my closet, where they remained for many months, as I swore I'd never wear them. Well, I found a good occasion for wearing them - matching them with a white and green striped shirt. That morning, when I went downstairs to leave for church, I was already properly dressed. This was unusual, normally I'd come downstairs just a few minutes after rolling out of bed, wearing my usual gym shorts and tattered t-shirt, only to be sent back upstairs to quickly brush my teeth and change into "church clothes." My parents seemed surprise that we didn't have to have our typical Sunday morning argument, and even Cole commented that I was looking awfully dapper. I don't think anyone made the connection between the dunk tank and my surprising willingness to dress smartly, but the experience did kind of throw me for a loop, as I didn't want to give away that I was excited to wear my nice clothes in the dunk tank. I kind of got past that as I got older. By the time I was in high school, it occurred to me that my opportunities to go in the dunk tank might be coming to a close. So one year, I put on a pair of gray dress pants - they were too small for me, and when I was sitting down the pants came down to just about half way between my knees and my ankles. I matched that with a blue dress shirt and dark blue tie, and a belt that was a little tight on me. After sitting uncomfortably through the church service, I made a bee line for the dunk tank, and my mom commented "oh, that's why you're dressed so nice, you're going to get dunked." I just grinned and nodded, not really wanting to have a conversation about it, and quickly excused myself from my parent's presence. I do remember that year, I was probably the best-dressed person to climb into the dunk tank, and I even noticed Cole laughing out loud at the sight of me up there.

So let's see, what other fun or interesting things happened? I already mentioned the time that Jilly wore his favorite black army boots into the dunk tank, then seemed to regret that at just about the exact moment that his feet hit the water. Jilly had gotten those boots from his brother who was in the army, and he absolutely LOVED them and wore them everywhere. Well, submerging them in the dunk tank proved to be a poor idea, and for the next week or so Jilly was back to running around barefoot while he desperately waited for his boots to dry out. (it also put Jilly into a terrible mood during that time - he could be moody as a baseline, but he was especially obnoxious that week.)

Another time, we had gotten some rain in the days leading up to the carnival. Between the ground already being wet, and the water dripping and splashing out of the dunk tank, we quickly had a large muddy field to play it - so someone came up with a football, and a very muddy game of football began. Fortunately I didn't faceplant into the mud this time, but every child in attendance ended up soaked and covered in mud. I remember me and Cole going to present ourselves to our parents as they were getting ready to leave, wide grins on our face and covered from head to toe in mud, and my parents glaring at us and assuring us that there was no way we'd be getting in their car, and we should plan on walking home.

It might have been the same year I wore the dress shirt, tie and too-short pants - Link had graduated high school and had gotten a job out of town ("gotten out" as my mom called it), so this would likely be his last 4th of July carnival with us. He had taken over the responsibility of constructing the dunk tank that year, and job he was well qualified for. Jilly insisted on helping, because if Link was able to do something, Jilly was usually desperate to show that he could do that same thing just as well. So Link and Jilly come up with this dunk tank design and spend a few days building the thing and getting into heated arguments with each other, so the rest of us mostly steered clear of the whole project until it was done. When the carnival arrived and Link was getting ready to open the dunk tank, he noticed that he was missing a piece of rope - their design involved a piece of rope being tied into a loop about 2 feet across, and it somehow kept the seat suspending until the target was hit. Jilly said he knew where to find the missing piece of rope, and ran off down main street, returning a few minutes later with a length of rope, which he tied into a loop and fitted into the dunking contraption. With the dunk tank now complete, it was suggested the Link and Jilly should take the first turns in the tank, since they engineered its construction. Link was old enough that he hadn't been in the dunk tank in the last year or two, but he was a good sport and agreed to climb up on the seat. He was wearing a dress shirt, a nice pair of blue jeans and a brown web belt, and had left his shoes and hat safely on the ground. I was watching him patiently encourage the crowd of younger kids to line up, swinging his legs over the water, when all the sudden, the seat collapsed and he took an unexpected splash into the tank.

Everyone collectively gasped, and waited with baited breath to see Link's reaction, before we were comfortable laughing. Link look absolutely stunned, but fortunately cracked a smile and shouted for Jilly. "Jilly! What happened?" Jilly was poking around at their dunking contraption, and pulled out their length of rope - which had frayed and snapped, causing the seat to collapse. "Looks like the rope broke" Jilly announced, holding it up for Link and everyone to see. "It broke, Jilly? I thought you said it was a good rope." Link and Jilly both started working the crowd, seeing that they had everyone's attention, including many of the adults. "It was a good rope, Link!" Jilly bantered back. "Yeah, Jilly? Then why am I soaking wet right now?" "Well, the rope broke!" "So then it WASN'T a good rope then!" "Well it WAS. Until it broke!" Link and Jilly went back and forth a bit while Link climbed out of the dunk tank. One of the adults managed to procure a length of much better rope and provided it to Link, who used it to repair the dunk tank, and then announced that since he had already gotten dunked, that it was now Jilly's turn. Jilly sighed but went along with it, allowing everyone to take a turn knocking him into the chilly water.

--

Next up, I'm working on a Part II to this story, that will tie into the first time I can remember "outsiders" coming to visit our town. One family had cousins from California come visit for a week or so, and it was QUITE the talk of the town, at the time. So I'm going to work on that next!

Follow Ups:

- Re: Memoir - Outsiders and the Dunk Tank BenH 02:43:14 1/12/2021 (1)
  - Re: Memoir - Outsiders and the Dunk Tank Pete 21:40:03 1/14/2021 (0)

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