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Giant Slide West Columbia: Late 1960s   30 comments

Posted at 12:40 am in Uncategorized

I'm more than a litte hazy about where the giant slide was. It was definitely in the West Columbia/Cayce area. If I had to guess, I would say it may have been on Airport Blvd near what's now the I-26 interchange, but it could have been further out on the Charleston Highway.

At any rate, it was clearly an economic boondoggle which didn't last more than a single season, which was a real shame. The way I remember it, it had a large number of sliding "lanes", possibly as many as a dozen. You would get a piece of some sort of fabric to slide on, possibly a carpet patch, or a burlap sack, walk the stairs to the top, pick a lane, get on your fabric and slide down. The whole thing was built on a metal frame, and I think the lanes were fiberglass. I have the vague impression that different lanes may have had different colors. I don't remember the price and whether it was "per ride", a time limit, or per visit. At any rate, it wasn't so exorbitant that my parents wouldn't take us.

As I say, it didn't remain a going concern for very long, but it sat there, defunct for at least several years. We kids didn't quite understand the concept "out of business". The slide was still there, surely if we kept going, eventually we would catch it when it was open. Our parents, I'm sure, rolled their eyes and tried to get the concept into our minds, but eventually every time we were in Cayce for Sunday dinner, they would give in to our pestering and drive us out to the slide afterwards. I can't remember exactly when the slide was finally torn down, but I think it was gone by the Tricentennial.

UPDATE:

In the comments, Jaby Baby says the slide was called The Magic Carpet and was on Airport Blvd. Thanks Jaby!

Written by ted on January 10th, 2008

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30 Responses to 'Giant Slide West Columbia: Late 1960s'

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  1. That was well before my time, but I'll have to ask my dad about this. I've never heard of it and it sounds like an interesting piece of nostalgia. Do you remember something like this over on Two Notch Road near Columbia Mall. I remember driving by it when I was a kid and always looking over at it, but it had been closed for years and had already begun to fall apart. I can't place exactly where it was anymore.

    Brian

    8 Feb 08 at 9:20 pm

  2. Yes, I recall that. My memory is that it was possibly a water-slide, somewhere near the "Pink House" (another vanished landmark). I think it opened and closed while I was in middle-school, 1973-ish or so.

    ted

    8 Feb 08 at 9:48 pm

  3. I remember the Magic Carpet, It was on Airport Blvd. close to the old hotel there by the Racetrack Gas Station. I remember how they had it lit up at night, almost like Vegas lights and the lanes were all different colors. You couldn't miss it when you drove by at night. I think I was about 5-6 when it closed, so that would be about 30 years ago. I remember the water slide on two notch road, up on top of a hill, went there a few times... If my story is correct, it was a public water slide that was built in the 60's. It was whites only, when the government made them integrate, they went to private membership whites only. That didnt go over well, so they went interracial public and the place went down hill and closed. I think I was about 8 or so when it closed

    Jaby Baby

    12 Feb 08 at 8:21 pm

  4. "The Magic Carpet" -- Thanks Jaby!

    ted

    12 Feb 08 at 8:56 pm

  5. I remember a waterslide on River Drive in the Seventies, sorta behind Crockmeyer's Saloon, right?

    Jonathan

    22 Feb 08 at 11:35 am

  6. Hmm. I don't remember that one at all!

    ted

    22 Feb 08 at 12:48 pm

  7. I may be confusing River Drive w/ Two Notch.

    Jonathan

    22 Feb 08 at 4:22 pm

  8. I remember there being a waterslide on Two Notch in the 70s. It was on the north side of the road, I think around where those car dealerships are now.

    Oldie

    14 Apr 08 at 4:05 pm

  9. Yean, a couple of us remember that. Don't know why I never went to it back then.

    ted

    14 Apr 08 at 5:52 pm

  10. I remember this well. This was on a piece of property my family leased. It is now Clayton Mobile Homes. THe name was The Giant Slide. Your recollection is correct. I can ask my older brothers more detail if you like. You did slide on potato sacks. The lanes did have various shades of pastel colors...pink, green, yellow and blue. The slide was huge in it's day...went straight down with 3 hills. You went down the first and hit some flat area leading to the 2nd hill then some flat area then the 3rd small hill.

    I would prefer you not use my name if you make any comments
    I have emailed the artical to my siblings as it brought back memories. It's hard to believe anyone remembers it.

    A. L.

    A. L.

    4 May 08 at 10:17 am

  11. There was a waterslide on Two Notch road, It was either behind Freedom Suzuki or Donahues Transmission. I think you can still see it, or whats left of it. Ill have to check it out. I think its just very overgrown with vines and weeds.

    geoff

    8 May 08 at 9:35 pm

  12. There was one on Two Notch Road; when I was a kid you used to be able to look up into the hilly area and see remaining pieces of the slide. I don't know if they're still visible.

    michael

    12 Sep 08 at 9:28 am

  13. I went looking a while ago, and didn't see anything on Two Notch.

    ted

    12 Sep 08 at 9:41 am

  14. I went to that place exactly once when I was about 13. Quite a thrill at the time.

    Dennis

    12 Sep 08 at 10:12 am

  15. The water slide on two Notch was called the Zoon Flume and it consited of two sets of paralell cement water slides that went down the big hill on Two Notch near its intersection with Shakespear Road. I remember it being billed as the largest water slide in SC at the time.

    I was told years later that it closed in part because the large amount of money they had to spend on insurance prevented the business from being profitable with the volume they were getting.

    Tom

    7 Oct 08 at 6:01 am

  16. Earlier in this thread ted mentioned the "pink house." Anyone know anything about it?

    It was a big Spanish/Florida style mansion on Shakespeare Road (no doubt before it was called Shakespeare Road), very high and overlooking Two Notch. I'd guess it was built in the 30s or 40s and was probably considered "out of town".

    I have a dim memory of a story that it was built or used as a school of some sort(?), and of course any place like that which sits empty long enough gets a reputation for being haunted. I poked all around it one day a long time ago. You could see it had been beautiful when it was new.

    Dennis

    8 Oct 08 at 8:16 am

  17. I remember reading a story about the "Pink House" years ago. It was a residence though I think at one time or another they took in borders. The owners of the house had a farm that covered the area around the house but there is no trace of either the farm or the house today.

    Tom

    8 Oct 08 at 10:43 am

  18. The one on Two Notch was indeed "The Zoom Flume". I remember it well because they were a major sponsor at WZLD-FM where I worked. It's heyday was the summer of 1979. We gave away free passes all the time. Ithink we tied it in with "The Ramblin' Raft Race" on the Congaree River.

    Captain Dave

    20 May 09 at 8:55 am

  19. Man, I had forgotten all about the Ramblin' Raft Race!

    That was when WZLD was in their "album rock" phase. I was a little unclear on the concept, and wrote them an impassioned postcard to the effect they should play more cuts off of Billy Joel's "Stranger" and less of Van Morrison's Top 40 hit "Wavelength".

    ted

    20 May 09 at 9:51 am

  20. WZLD.... The ROCK... of the city.

    The Ramblin' Raft Race! I was going to BC when they had the first one of those (did they have more than one?).

    I happened to be in study hall when a DJ and a guy from some raft rental company out of Atlanta came over looking for some kids to work for them. I signed up, and that was the hardest I think I've ever worked. We had to be there at 5:00am to blow up the rafts, rent them out, and then pack up and head down Old State to the pickup spot. Needless to say, the people getting out of the water didn't resemble the folks we rented to at the put-in. I think we worked about 12 hours straight. Didn't even get a lunch break!

    Great times! (:

    E.J.

    20 May 09 at 7:24 pm

  21. EJ

    Z96 was a good station. You guys sponsored some great concerts.

    Terry

    21 May 09 at 4:32 am

  22. Well it may have been called the Magic Carpet but we knew it as the Super Slide. It was fiberglass and painted in alternating colors of white and kind of an aqua green. It sat just about exactly where that plane crash happened a few years ago that almost killed drummer Travis Barker and DJ AM. The slide was fun but the one time my parents took me, my sister and little brother was enough because we had nasty road rash like burns on our arms and elbows from touching the sides and not keeping tucked inside the carpet as you slid down.

    Ned Harkey

    24 Dec 11 at 1:06 am

  23. Jaby Baby is close. The Majic Carpet Saide was where the Cintas Uniform place is on Knox abbott dr. Near Toyota Center. There are still some pilings where it stood back there to this day.

    Spool

    7 Mar 12 at 3:39 pm

  24. Also across from the Super Slide, was Shakey's Pizza where the Auto-Zone/Pep Boys, Advance Auto Parts ( I cant remember) sits. I know it was there through the late 60's.

    Saturday's child

    7 Mar 12 at 6:17 pm

  25. In 61 - 65 my parents and I lived on Baxter St. just off Shakespeare Rd. I was very young but remember the pink mansion when in much better shape. Dad worked at Shakespeare. I also went down the water slide in 83-84.

    Tony

    22 Aug 12 at 9:51 pm

  26. I remember the old pink house. We used to cut school there. It was very creepy. The zoom flume was below where it was just a little north. There was also a shakeys pizza on parklane where substation II is now. Anyone remember yogi bears fried chicken? I lived in belvedere in the 70's. anyone remember the tornado that flipped the double decker bus at chappys fish and chips? It also trashed belvedere.

    Bobby h.

    18 Jan 13 at 8:11 pm

  27. The bus flipping has been mentioned a couple of times in the comments I think.

    The last (as far as I know) Yogi Bear's Honey Fried Chicken is still open in Hartsville

    ted

    20 Jan 13 at 2:03 am

  28. I remember The Slide had blue and white lanes. It was kinda behind the Cintas Uniform Services near Glen Street. I always wanted to go on it. but Mom said it was permanently closed and that it had been too expensive even when it first opened.

    Bryan

    24 Jan 19 at 11:22 pm

  29. I am also very interested in "The Pink House" and its history. I remember seeing it when my parents and I would drive into Columbia every Sunday to eat lunch at Lanier's Restaurant on Sumter Street. This unusual, large stucco home sat high upon a bluff overlooking Hwy 1/Two Notch, and I always thought it looked like a castle. I was very young, but I remember my dad saying someone died in that house from being poisoned.

    Lucy Mac

    3 Nov 20 at 1:03 am

  30. I lived in Fairlawn neiborhood directly across the street from the Magic Slide. It was located as stated above on Airport Blvd. next to the Cintas Uniform Rental business. We had more fun playing on it after it closed than while it was open. And yes, some of the concrete footing are still in the ground.
    And also as stated above, Shakey's Pizza sat across the street from the old Toyota Center.
    Thanks for the memories.

    Pig

    18 Aug 21 at 9:52 am

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