Thrill is gone

Calgary Sun ^ | 2005-10-13 | Michael Platt

[mingwah]

Of course litigation is the cause of funless playgrounds. I knew it wasn't a fun world anymore when my new chainsaw instructions suggested 'not to use the chainsaw when angry'.

[neutrino]

Good post...brings back some great memories...

[packrat35]

Lawyers suck

[SaveTheChief]

When I was a kid, I attended an elementary school named after Neil Armstrong. The playground had a rocket and space theme and included a rocket that was probably 20 feet tall. We could climb in it and follow steps all the way to the top. We had to climb a short ladder to get in. It was enclosed with bars no child could squeeze through. At about the halfway point, there was a slide that took kids back down to the ground.

The playground also had all kinds of equipment that we loved. By today's standards all of it would be considered unsafe. Oddly, no one I know ever died or got seriously injured from playing there. We had the best playground in the area, but I think all that equipment is long gone. Those were the days.

[lizma]

It's the lawyers.

Yep. In Germany the playgrounds are just a blast but you've got to use some common sense.

Our pool has a lifeguard every six feet. Their's, you may see one or two lifeguards all day long.

I always assumed their tort procedure must be very, very different from ours.

[ZGuy]

Thank you VERY MUCH for the link to visionforum.com! It looks like they have many materials we can use as we raise our children to be future statesmen and leaders.

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

In the 50's we made cannons out 1 1/2 inch pipe, C batteries and cherry bombs. These were dangerous.

We used pipe, the powder out of shot gun shells, and ball bearings ........

[rattrap]

Nothin like the lawsuit lottery to ruin everyones fun.

You all know what the difference between a dead skunk and a dead lawyer in the middle of the road is right?

[andie74]

Oh, anything I can do to promote Vision Forum. They have the BEST toys for kids. We found them at a homeschool convention, and I buy most of my Christmas gifts there every year.

[Hatteras]

I went back to visit my old neighborhood pool. No high diving board. How's a kid supposed to stand a chance of clearing the diving well rope?!

[alfa6]

Time for the obligatory thanks for the pings Clive, I may not post many replies but I always read the articles.

Speaking of playgrounds here are a couple of pics of the playground that I built for the grandkids this summer.

I haven't bothered to wax the slide yet as the grandkids are not quire old enough to handle the speed :-) FWIW this is the third, and hopefully last of the playgrounds I've built. The last one had swings that were about 13 feet tall, 'cause I was to lazy to cut the 16 ft 4x4s down :-)

Best wishes & Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[taxed2death]

Funny, I can relate. My dad who's 80, finally got around to having all of our family's 8mm video tape burned onto DVD. I have 7+ hours of absolute mayhem with myself and three brothers, mom and dad preserved in digital form.

I scare myself watching this stuff. We had toys that would probably be totally illegal to sell in the US now. We had every crazy vomit inducing swing / spinning mechanism known to modern man in our back yard.

I can be seen with no shirt, no shoes, no helmet no pads of any sort racing down the hill at the end of my street doing a handstand on my skateboard.

HA!

To be young again. :)

[It's me]

My son did that.

Scared the crap out of the dog across the street so badly that he had to stop. Thank goodness.

Scared me too.

[elmer fudd]

Reminds me of when we used to make cannons out of coke cans, lighter fluid and tennis balls. Those were the days

In the 50's we made cannons out 1 1/2 inch pipe, C batteries and cherry bombs. These were dangerous.

I'm surprised I didn't end up dead or in prison when I think of the things we built as teenagers. Suffice it to say that after lighter fluid and tennis balls we discovered the wonders of smokeless powder and steel pipe and things didn't stop there.

[Hillarys nightmare]

Brother can I relate to that!

I loved to swim and dive at my old pool, and the same fate of the high board you have described at your pool, seems to be universal.

When I tell my son that I used to do "gainers" and "doubles" off the high board at the pool, he can't even imagine what I am talking about.Seeing how they have removed it. He has never seen a high board, except on TV.

The sad thing is, other than the occasional "belly buster", I can't recall anyone ever getting injured from diving off the high board at our old municipal pool.

[Chickensoup]

I remember those old days, now obliterated by trial lawyers and risk managers.

[freedom9]

My Dad was in in the Canadian military. We moved to a small town in Germany in 1959.
Me and the other kids used to play war in real pillboxes and if we rumaged enough in the scrap yard we could find rusted machine guns to use.

[Trampled by Lambs]

Oh sure.. it's all fun & games till someone gets an eye put out!

[US_MilitaryRules]

Lawyers suck. I agree.

[Clive]

I remember that in my early teens when we would go to the local pharmacist to buy sulpher and saltpeter (potassium nitrate) (we made our own charcoal) all that the chemist would say as he rang up the amount would be "be careful"

Today there would be a hell of an uproar if a teen were to try to buy these chemicals in the same store at the same time.