Old school playgrounds. I just mentioned to someone
today that I remember as a kid enjoying going to other places to see the
playground equipment that parks and playgrounds had that we didn’t have in our
area. I even used to create my own dream playgrounds on paper.
The
white springy rocket ship at the Lion’s Park in Adams.
The
swinging gate at a park in Waupaca that we went to on a field trip in 6th
grade and a reporter having lunch in the park took a picture of me hanging
upside down on it. He said he would send us a copy of that paper but we never
received one. I’ve considered driving to Waupaca one of these days to see if I
can hunt it down in their archives or something.
In the
“yearbook” Ms. Ratzlaff made for us at Brooks School, there was also a
photocopied picture of me hanging upside down on the monkey bars outside Mrs.
Burke’s classroom. I’m a hoarder, but cannot find that yearbook anywhere!
Sheesh, I thought I kept everything!
The
curly metal slide at the park in Westfield that I loved and for some reason my
brother hated. That was also the place I had my first taste of Sarsaparilla.
The
old metal playgrounds at McDonald’s with the equipment made out of the
characters. The old merry go rounds. Now everything is plastic and
merry-go-rounds are plat formed at ground level because Oh my God, kids were
getting hurt! Yeah, that happens.
And that brings me to indoor playrooms most
commonly seen at fast food restaurants such as McDonald’s, Hardee’s, Burger
King, etc.
I can’t tell you how many times a vehicle
crashed through the wall and into the ball pit at the Hardee’s in Adams. Three,
maybe four that I remember.
The Hardee’s in the Rapids had this amazing
tri-level carpeted fortress with slides that landed you in the suspended ball
pit. I loved that one. I had one of my birthday parties there as a kid. I’m
pretty sure I still have the glow in the dark plastic cross and name card Beth
gave me during that party.
Slowly, the indoor kiddie metropolises began
to fade away due to, oh, I don’t know… germ fear mongering over-protective
parents would be my guess. You all know we’re raising a generation of dependent
wusses, right? Oh, wait, that was the topic I was not going to drift to in this
blog. Some other time. Stay tuned...
Where was your favorite playground as a
child?
