It’s impossible not to smile when watching longtime friends Chuck Walker, 68, and Mike Hartshorn, 57, perched on opposite ends of what is typically a child’s playground staple, as they attempt to break the world record for consecutive time spent on a teeter-totter.
The two men climbed aboard their homemade wood contraption on July 1 at Todos Santos Plaza in downtown Concord and intend to stay there until at least Saturday, getting off only for bathroom breaks. The journey hasn’t been easy, but they intend to stick it out through the end.
“I’m getting delirious,” Walker said on Thursday. “But we motivate each other. We’re both boneheaded enough that we’re going to finish it.”
Walker knew what he signed up for when he committed to the effort, having first set the world record in 1971 at age 18 with 216 consecutive hours spent on the teeter-totter in Sacramento. The record made the local papers and a Brady Bunch episode later that year featured a similar feat. The story has become family lore. This month marks the 50th anniversary of the original attempt, and Walker wanted his kids and grandkids to have a laugh and see “see whether papa was telling stories or whether it was true.”
The Golden State lifting its pandemic restrictions in mid-June has also given the endeavor a heightened sense of importance: bringing the community together to laugh after a difficult year.
“Everyone walks up with a smile on their faces,” Walker said. “Back then, it was incredible. This time, it’s times a thousand.”
Finding a teeter-totter partner was not easy — both his son and grandson turned down the gig and he couldn’t reach his first partner — but Walker couldn’t have asked for a more dedicated partner than Hartshorn, his longtime friend and housemate.
“I don’t know if it was tequila or something else, but I said I would do it, and I’ve kept my word,” Hartshorn said. “Sometimes I joke that I took a summer job with the Make a Wish Foundation for senior citizens, Chuck came in, and I drew the short straw.”
The pair are not going through Guinness or other record-verifying agencies, though they’ve recorded the whole endeavor if need be. Noon on Saturday will mark 216 hours on the teeter-totter — and after that, who knows how much longer they’ll spend going up and down nearly 4 feet, reversing heights.
“I don’t feel like I need to prove anything,” Walker said. “I know I did it, Mike knows we did it, and the people that are here every day, they know we did it.”
And the response from onlookers in the plaza has been incredible. When people come up to talk or marvel, Walker tells them to come back on Saturday for when they break the record. And he said almost everyone responds that they’ll be there.
Edward Ngiam, 48, and his elderly dog, Mutiara, 14, admired the effort from under the shade of a tree in the park.
“I love things like this, the small town vibe,” he said, having recently moved from San Francisco to Concord. “You don’t find this in the city.”
Walker’s family is having a good time as well. His daughter, Kayla, said that as long as she can remember Walker has talked about his teeter-totter record. Now, her two sons can join in on the fun.
“The younger one sees his teeter-totter t-shirt and points at it and says, ‘Papa,’” she said. “My oldest son, nearly 11, wants to go see him every day. ‘Can we go visit Papa, can we go see Papa.’ They’re having a lot of fun with it.”
But teeter-tottering isn’t all fun and games, despite the high-backed, tiger-striped lawn chairs the pair sit in — it’s a serious physical and logistical challenge.
They only dismount for bathroom breaks at a Honey Bucket porta potty stationed next to the stage. They’ve gotten leg cramps in places you can’t imagine. They fight the heat with umbrellas clamped to their chairs and cold water, and eat what people bring them.
Night, Walker said, is “like being on top of Mt. Rainier”: cold, windy and brutal, especially when the wind blows water from the sprinklers their way. They sleep in shifts so as to not stop.
Hartshorn also didn’t take time off work. A bluetooth earpiece keeps him connected to clients of the travel agency he works for, and his chair has a power strip strapped to the side connected to his phone, mouse and computer on a side table.
When it’s over, they’re looking forward to the car ride out. Walker said the experience of riding in a level, straight line after so much up and down motion is unmatched.
“It’s the closest thing you can possibly imagine to a magic carpet. It’s like you’re riding on a cushion of air,” Walker said. Hartshorn adds that he hopes the magic carpet ride will include some sort of alcoholic beverage.
The experience has brought them closer. A softer side of Walker, who can come off as a “tough guy,” has emerged, according to Hartshorn.
“Everything you do affects the guy on the other side of the teeter-totter,” Hartshorn said. “And I know that he’s thinking about me, putting me before him, every day, every moment of the day until the end.”
"break" - Google News
July 10, 2021 at 09:01PM
https://ift.tt/3AR4z6k
Friends set out to break teeter-totter world record — and make people smile - East Bay Times
"break" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3dlJq82
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Friends set out to break teeter-totter world record — and make people smile - East Bay Times"
Post a Comment