Can you believe what this guy did?” asked my ten-year-old as
he recounted another amazing feat he’d discovered in The Guiness Book of World
Records. He went on to regale me with the astounding accomplishments of the
individuals with the “most stuffed bears,” “largest ball of twine,” “furthest
distance of squirting milk out your eye,” and wait for it – “the most naked
people on a rollercoaster!” I remember my own fascination with Guiness. I
believe its main audience hovers right around age 10.
I must have been seven or eight when I decided I would break
the Guiness record for continuous swinging. It was a long, endless summer day
ripe for adventures like becoming world famous, so I marched determinedly out
to the swing set that my father had installed in the woods on the edge of the
yard. I don’t remember if I told my mom of my plans. Odds are she was long gone
to the tennis courts by then.
