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Posted on 07/21/2026 3:16:50 AM PDT by Adder
You remember recess, right? Monkey bars, blistering hot metal slides, tetherball, sitting around on a bench chatting with your pals. It was great.
And for most of you Gen Xers, baby boomers, and older millennials, it was the best part of school… right up there with “pizza Fridays.” The bell would ring, and the doors couldn’t fly open fast enough… kids would pour onto the playground like they were just released from prison.
Recess was a total hodgepodge created by the kids. Sure, there was usually some half-interested teacher keeping an eye on things, but the kids picked teams, made up games, argued over rules, settled little disputes, scraped their knees, and figured out how to get along without an adult hovering over their every move.
That half hour might’ve looked like chaos, but something really important was happening. Children were learning how to read a room, deal with conflict, make friends, lose gracefully, speak up for themselves, and recover when things didn’t go their way.
(Excerpt) Read more at revolver.news ...
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Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
Yes recess now is 15 minutes to play with your cell phone.
School is actually worse than prison.
In prison you don’t get graded tests that confirm you believe their propaganda.
Our parochial school had recess in the 50s. The church gypsum covered parking lot. We would play tag, kick ball or just toss a ball about unless it was raining or snowing those days we milled about in the basement. No equipment of any kind. The girls primarily socialized. No knifings no shootings perhaps a fist fight but beware if caught a trip to the principal who we believed was hiding
Out from Nuremberg. The point is steam was blown off and friendship kindled.
Our kids deserve no less, imho.
Same for me. We went out for a 15 minute recess after about two hours in school sitting at a desk. We went out again after lunch. We only had the church parking lot. There was no playground equipment. We played games like Red Rover red Rover we dare so and so over. Games like that would not be allowed today.
After blowing off so much energy, kids could sit still for another hour or two. All this was after walking to school. If the family even had a single car, it had gone to work with Dad. No one had two cars.
Oh, jeez, when us cub scouts would get our first pocket knives, we would take them to school and proceed to play “stretch”, Mumbly Peg, and Chicken—all variations of the same theme which was throwing the knife to stick as close as possible to your opponents foot without hitting it...or getting your opponent to “stretch until they fell down...
No One, I mean no one, teacher, Principal or other was ever concerned what us boys were doing out in the field...and of course throwing our knives into the ground was great for our blades...ha!
In my day, it was always fish on Friday. We were in a strong catholic community and they couldn't eat meat on Friday. That was an eternal, absolute commandment. Until one of their pope-a-dopes decreed otherwise.
But the fish was delicious. I often got an extra piece for a quarter. Or, a dime. Forgot which.
We played softball/work-up most of the fall and spring. Hard-balls (baseballs) were banned.
Work-up is where 3 players are ‘up’ As one gets put out the catcher becomes ‘up’ and the player who got out moves to right field. As the outs go on he moves to center, then left, then 3rd, then Short, the 2nd, then 1st, then pitcher, then catcher then he’s up again.
You needed to remember what position you had for the next recess for play to resume.
Either that or we played pop up. One or two kids would have the bats and hit flies to the other players. Catching a pop fly you took the batter’s spot. Otherwise a grounder was worth 25 cents and a one bouncer was worth 50 cents. When you got $1.00 you took over as a batter for the guy who hit you the winning play.
Softball/workip sounds like great fun while using a lot of energy. No standing around.
I always heard about recess, but at my elementary school, we didn’t have recess.
Monkey bars
“The monkey bars came in, we lost 124 kids in one day.”
I remember at recess the Nuns would kick our ass at basketball.
It was because it continued forever. No score is kept. The point of the game is to hit well enough to stay up to bat.
I did forget one aspect of the game. If a fielding player caused an out by catching the hit ball on the fly, he/she immediately took the hitter’s place as up, while the now-out player moved to right field and everyone in the positions between RF and the one the fielder who caught the fly, move up one position.
Those hard board swings were ideal for ejecting oneself at maximum forward position ... one would get a second (or so) of free-fall to prepare for impact.
Re: playgrounds. Explains the high cost of car insurance nowadays.
When I was a kid our school had an asphalt school yard. If you fell off the jungle gym you paid dearly. Then got it from your mom when you came home with torn new corduroy pants.
Now playgrounds are low impact, high cushion. Easy on the clothes children wear for a year but rough on their $50K cars when they get older not appreciating their limitations or paying for their transgressions.
I loved the merry go round.
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