Is that a frying pan??…nope it’s just a slide

Ok people…more funny stuff. I found this website last week and I CAN’T get enough:

www.1000awesomethings.com

Reason I got onto these sites was this particular post:
http://1000awesomethings.com/2008/07/18/980-old-dangerous-playground-equipment/

It is about AWESOME, super dangerous playground equipment. You know the kind. Wood, metal, cement…the reason you actually get tentatus shots :). It is so sad that kids these days won’t experience these gems. Maybe with a father in law like Ray though, there may be some hope. I won’t be shocked if our kids have an entire playground of PVC, bungee cords and a grill cart :). But anyway, the post made me all nostalgic for the good old playgrounds of my childhood. In my pondering, I came up with the best/worst playground memories.

First United Methodist Preschool (1987ish) – My friend Laura and I were playing tag. She was IT and coming after me. I ran through the cement pipes in the chase. Laura, however, did not duck far enough and proceeded to ram her head into the entrance causing massive amounts of blood for all the tots to see. But man was she cool, she got like 100 stitches(of course it was probably like 4 but to us little ones, it was 100). And guess what? The preschool wasn’t sued and Laura came back the next day with cool stitches and all.

Preschool take 2. – One day, all the kids created a contest. The idea was to build up momentum on the monkey bars (which were solid steel and about 6 feet of the ground…GASP) and swing and land on the giant truck tire (aka the mosquito breeding ground). Well as most of you know, I have never been very big/tall/coordinated. It is my turn and I proceed to swing and land flat on my ass. O I cried and got babied….but then after lunch, what did I do? I did the same thing again…..and you know what I AM STILL ALIVE.

Hudson Elementary School (4th Grade) – It had been raining and it was time for PE. We all went outside to the playground. Since the swings were still wet and the monkey bars were too slippery, we decided to have relay races. The goal was to run backwards to the pull up bars and back. Now this was in the good old days when we have dirt and grass on the ground…not rubber or mulch to play in…so what was right under the pull up bars??….a mud puddle. So here I go running backwards and I am kickin butt…until my foot hits the front of the mudd puddle and I go face first into the mud. I remember having to take my shirt off and put it in a bag and wear my jacket home as my shirt. Ya see that?? I didn’t call mommy or daddy to come get me…I got over it! O… and I rode the bus 🙂

The article about the awesome playgrounds of old, links to some studies done on how these types of “safety” measures put in place (plastic BORING playgrounds) are not letting kids learn from their mistakes. I sent this to a coworker of Kevin’s and he had this to say “Childhood is just a test to see if you can survive adulthood, that are just making it easy.” Also, children aren’t wanting to play at the playground anymore…giving them more reason to stay home and get fat in front of the TV. This has made me want to go looking for old leftover parks around the city…I miss them. With their slides that could burn your thighs to oblivion, swings(yes schools are cutting out swings!) that you could soar off of, wobbly rope bridges, firemen’s poles, and monkey bars that were your working goal for years. *tear*

5 thoughts on “Is that a frying pan??…nope it’s just a slide

  • May 5, 2011 at 9:03 pm
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    I loved it. I can also remember those days.

    Reply
  • March 30, 2012 at 10:28 am
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    Oh man there were some AWESOME metal slides back in the day. We used to have one at a local lake…rather in a local lake that we would slide down wearing our clothes (no need to change into bathing suites) and just fly because we were soaking wet. It doesn’t get much better than that!

    I think there is something to the theory that the ability to survive childhood really does depict how you will handle being an adult. Great post! TGIF 😉 Hope you find a relic playground this weekend to enjoy like the good ole times!

    Reply
    • April 1, 2012 at 7:33 am
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      Oh hells yeah. There is actually still a wood metal park still left in Raleigh. It is pretty awesome.

      Reply
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