The world record for the longest continuous teeter-totter ride is being challenged in Concord.
Two men have set up their custom seesaw, equipped with comfy zebra print chairs, at Todos Santos Plaza. They are due to break the record of 216 hours on Sunday.
One of the men, Chuck Walker, actually set the record 50 years ago as a teenager.
Mike Hartshorn, the man on the other side of the teeter-totter, joked he was foolish enough to participate in the record-breaking attempt.
Walker closed his shop for the record, but Hartshorn is still working, with his phone and nearby laptop. They arranged for a portable toilet to be near the stage, for their rare break, one at a time. The movement doesn’t stop – not even for sleep, which they take turns doing for a few hours at a time.
“Concord is full of amazing people, from all walks of life,” Walker said. “They come up and they’re so supportive – young kids on skateboards, old retired people,” he said. “We had a group come by and they didn’t speak English, and they were just laughing the whole time at just the idea.”
Walker isn’t doing it for cause, nor is he raising money. There’s no tip jar on the stage. He simply wanted to recreate the feeling of transcending so many things dividing people during a tumultuous time.
“The whole idea is to make the world smile,” he said.
Walker is doing interviews from all over the world and hearing from people he hasn’t seen in decades. All because of a simple playground attraction he says some kids have never heard of.
“It’s a really cool feeling,” Walker said. “There’s something you don’t have to be serious about – you don’t have to choose a side. And everybody, if you speak English, don’t speak English, tall, old, short, everybody is so amazing. That says it all – you got this.”
Source: NBC Bay Area
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