Posted on 12/11/2016 1:23:58 PM PST by Daffynition
The two young brothers seesawed in Riverside Park recently, testing and tormenting each other, absorbed in a playground ritual familiar to generations of children.
What they did not know was that they were in one of the last places in New York City where they could seesaw. Once ubiquitous in the city’s hundreds of public playgrounds, as they were around the country, the seesaws adults remember have largely vanished from the city and much of the nation because of safety concerns and changing tastes.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I remember trying to jump off 1st before the other kid did. Talk about Butt Hurt!!
It seemed like a good idea at the time, no doubt.
They are an excellent way to teach some simple physics.
“because of safety concerns and changing tastes.”
==
Because the government wants parents to bubble wrap their Iphone-playing kids to the couch.
“There are a lot of kids who never had a chance to have a deep voice because of that seesaw!” - Bill Cosby
OTOH, it's the damned helicopter parents, who have already made a generation of snowflakes, who want to coddle their children AND keep them children into their 30s, who have ruined so much !
Due to flooding last year a park had to replace playground equipment. My youngest son-in-law was in the right place at the right time with his truck. They gave all the equipment to them and now 4 of my grandkids have the best backyard in Texas. They’ve got seesaws, swings, monkey bars, a merry-go-round and several slides. That’s in addition to a trampoline they built for CHRISTmas last year. It’s a kid dream :)
That set of grandkids don’t seem to mind bumps and bruises like some of my other grandkids. And they seem to have fewer doctor visits and emergencies too.
It was in the '70s that knee pads and helmets came to be ubiquitous!
When I was growing up, there were NO such things at all and we played on playgrounds, that didn't have rubber padding under foot, played on monkeybars, swung, seesawed, and rode our bikes, IN THE STREET, sans padding, helmets, etc.; even rollerskated in the street! And I'm talking about doing all that in NYC! :-)
No seatbelts, almost ALL adults smoked, yet children could see movies and T.V., listen to the radio, without being inundated with F bombs, nudity, and worse.
Now that's the real thing, steel tee grip, no bumper- you supposed to cushion the drop with your legs and then push off. Other guy bails and that seat smacked you twice, once on the drop and again on the rebound. Had no fixed pivot, just several half round pillow blocks so one could set lengths for balance. Recall contests trying to bounce the board off the blocks, yeehaaa!
We had girls in the third grade that would have kicked both those boys butts. 
It’s because of fat kids, I tell ya.
If you’re a soft-bones or soft-headed kid and you can’t fall a couple of feet and not HURT yourself - you need to be thinned form the herd. ;)
“Stupid kids in that video! “
Not stupid,just teenage boys. That’s what they DO.
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Maybe the latter end of the 70s - but I recall helmets/kneepads/elbow pads coming into vogue in the early 80s. We couldn’t afford em so never ended up with any - at the time it was considered “fashionable” to be seen with them because of the cost, but later it was just looked at as dorky. Same thing with the turn/brake signals for bikes that were available accessories about that time.
Maybe I just don't remember because I'm getting old.
Or maybe I crashed too many times and dementia is setting in.
The 70's was the era of Evel Kneivel. All us boys were building ramps from scraps of wood and jumping our bikes. NO pads or helmets. We had skateboards with metal wheels that would skid on asphalt or concrete when turning. Many scrapes that caused.
It was the 70's when BMX started.
Boys, such as those, also now try to leap from the top of moving subways cars and get killed. They DESERVE whatever happens to them!
HARSH? Perhaps, but it's what I believe.
Being older than you, I remember that it wasn't "fashionable" in the '70s; it was what was done/suggested parents do for their kids. Pads for rollerskating too. But it was the late '70s in some places, I guess, but more like the early 1980s, in Chicago.
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