Niagara Falls

Watching the willing water splash over Niagara Falls was like watching someone having the best sled ride ever. And they did say someone went over the Falls in a barrel and survived the trip. But that didn’t sound like much fun. Watching the steady flow made me think of how that waterfall seemed to keep its equilibrium even with all sorts of commotion going on about it. Level-headed and lots of fun; that’s Niagara Falls the way I remember it.

Growing up, my parents always jumped at the opportunity (enough time off from work) to take a road trip. My mother would check each city and town in her AAA tour book to see what we might stop to see. So going to Niagara Falls by car from Massachusetts took some time, but it was all enjoyable time. When we stopped at the Canadian border, the guards asked my father to open the car trunk. My mother and I held our breath hoping the jalopy would cooperate. It did. We drove into Canada!  

We stayed over at a guest house a couple of blocks from the Falls. The hostess proudly showed a photo of  her son-in-law with a five-foot tuna he had caught nearby from his boat. Big fish, big waterfall—I recall that made some sort of crazy sense to me at the time! I know we took the boat ride under the Falls; we passengers were all given black rain slickers, which I thought lent a funereal feel to the journey. (But I like horror movies so it was all good.) My fondest memory comes from sitting on a bench above the Falls and watching the abundance of water constantly splashing and tumbling down. After that trip, my father would comment on adversity with the quip: “A lot of water over Niagara Falls.”

TATTOO—Journeys on My Mind by Tina Marie L. Lamb is available at Amazon and at Barnes and Noble and at iBooks.

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