The Book of Awesome

[Adam West]

Was reading some excerpts this evening from a book and laughed so hard I had to share this part....I think a playground we can all relate to compared to the playgrounds of today.

http://http://1000awesomethings.com/2008/07/18/980-playground-equipment/

[Duncan]

Yeah, I miss those days. A kid once flew off of the merry-go-round trying to do what I was doing, and tore his knee up...because the surrounding area was paved with blacktop for, uh, safety?

Anyway, I did witness a little girl fall about 20-25 feet from a climbing structure around 1980. Just, boom - flat on her back. Probably had a concussion, and was lucky not to have been hurt worse.

[boss]

My brother and I poured gasoline down one of those metal slides back in 1974. We thought it would help us go faster. It did. We ran the 1/4 mile back to our house in about 10.4 seconds.

[HardyGirl]

Those classic playgrounds were the best! Stone natilus and barrel climbers, real see saws that you could bumpty bump on, bar swings that some big kid would "take you up" on, if you were lucky. And yes, I fell off the the merry-go-round once. This big kid was spinning a bunch of us younger kids around, and of course I was sitting near the edge. I could hear my older sister yelling, "Stop! She's gonna fall off!" In the next second, BAM!, I was lying on the ground. Stunned, but no worse for wear. My sister said if I was gonna play on that thing anymore, I had to sit in the middle. Not as much fun, but still better than these "Pepsi Play Park" things the kids are forced to play on now!

[David Lee]

I miss those "monkey domes"... You know the dome of angled bars, they were like a kid sized thunderdome... It was like ajungle gym steele cage match! But also served as a good base or HQ for imaginary adventures.


Dave

[Rallygirl]

I attended an old three-room elementary school with wonderfully, dangerous things out on the playground. I loved the big, old, pump merry-go-round onto which you could load 20+ kids and at least 5 would fly off when top speeds were reached. May Poles are also things of the past. I guess kids today are too wussy to be whacked in the head with flying chains. LOL The newest items on our playground were blue and red, ball-like "barrels" made of some sort of fiber-infused plastic. They had holes in each end so one could crawl right in. Then you braced yourself while your buddies rolled you around like a giant hamster in a ball. Ah, what fun!

[jwyblejr]

Ah yes,the fire pole. Who hasn't slid down one thinking they were Batman?

[jimsmegos]

In kindergarten we had pyramid like stacks of tractor tires we would play and climb on. It was cool because you could even hide inside of the tires. Me and a friend would camp out inside the top tire and bombard other kids going through with sand. It was all well and good until one kid got sand in his eyes and started crying. we got in trouble but then the next day that kid joined us inside the tires. We were friends all the way through high school after that.

Bonding circa 1979

[jwyblejr]

I remember this one playground had a bell on a tall metal pole. You were suppose to climb the pole to ring the bell. We never did. We would shake the pole to make the bell ring.