The dulling of American playgrounds (no more monkey bars or see saws)

MSNBC / AP ^ | 7.5.03

[mhking]

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 5 — The playgrounds, like so much in Gigi McGaughey’s 4-year-old world, are not the way her parents remember. No 12-foot-tall metal slides shimmer and bake in the summer sun. The hulking jungle gyms where girls would hang by their knees, ponytails dangling over hard asphalt below, have been dismantled. It is hard to find those kid-powered merry-go-rounds that used to give giddy gut-level lessons in centrifugal force.

GONE, TOO, are the seesaws where earlier generations learned the art of cooperation and felt the betrayal of a sudden, bruising letdown.

Schoolyards and neighborhood parks have been transformed over the past two decades in the name of safety and in fear of lawsuits. The old standbys have given way to shorter, guardrail-lined plastic-and-steel play structures, leaving childhood experts complaining about cookie-cutter sameness and sterile designs that do not challenge today’s youngsters.

Many parents express a mixture of nostalgia and relief.

[gitmo]

It is hard to find those kid-powered merry-go-rounds that used to give giddy gut-level lessons in centrifugal force.

I loved those things. But the best fun was a grapevine hanging from a tree limb over a 50 foot gully.

[ElectricRook]

Everything else was invariably some form of war involving projectiles, escape and evasion etc.

Thanks to the Facist Mommies, today's generation of "Cannon Fodder" will have no idea that "Kill the poor enemy bastard" is the objective, nor how to do it.

In my time, it was dirt clod fights with weed bombs. Weed bombs were a hand full of field weeds with the dirt/rocks attached to the roots. Weed bombs had the advantage of a handle, similar to a German "grenade stick".

[somemoreequalthanothers]

But those same kids end up out in a world that is far from safe, and, without being able to learn some lessons for themselves.............

[HairOfTheDog]

I can't look at a slide today without the memory of a near tumble from the top to the pavement below.

It is kindof amazing to me to remember all of our playground equipment sitting on concrete pads.... What were they thinking?

And to some degree I find this article to be a bit over-reactive.... They have cool big toys at all the parks I go to, neat obstacles, net climbs, tire swings, slides and such, some of them much cooler than the simple playground equipment we had. And the bright idea of putting a pea gravel or sand bed down to fall on was late in coming.

[StriperSniper]

Everything else was invariably some form of war involving projectiles

"You'll put somebody's eye out doing that!!!"

[squidly]

I suppose I should assume that playing smeer the queer is no longer encouraged.

[Ben Bolt]

I used to swing higher than the crossbar and at the height of my swing leap off doing flying side kicks . That was so much fun !

Seems like these days many adults & kids are risk adverse . Its to bad because I think it builds character .

[Kozak]

Yeah I remember trying to time my jump from the swing so that I got the maximum boost, you wanted to leave with the swing just reaching it's farthest point. Man could you catch some major air! I know pretty stupid, but it was fun at the time....

[Finalapproach29er]

LOL! Memories.

[Kozak]

I bet the long term problems caused by childhood obesity will be much greater than injuries from playgrounds.

Don't worry. The heroic Trial Lawyers are hard at work correcting that problem too.....

[McGavin999]

And then these morons wonder why there's an obesity problem with children. They can't play anymore, all that's left for them is either computer games or TV. Yeah, kids got hurt, so what, that was part of growing up. If you didn't have scabs on your knees and elbows there was something wrong with you.

I heard the other day they were thinking about re-introducing PE to schools, I didn't realize they had stopped. Can't we throw out all these NEA idiots and get our country back to normal?

[Prodigal Son]

Weed bombs

We used everything that was throwable. Dirt clods, rocks, sticks and green pine cones. Those things were a pure pleasure to get hit with ;-)

Me and my cousins used to hunt one another with bow and arrow... BB guns. I've gone on many a big rabbit hunt with the extended family where later you'd have a couple of brothers fist fighting- "He shot me on purpose daddy!" (only shotguns- a little rabbit shot never hurt anyone ;-)

[TomGuy]

LOL! Memories.

Yeh, we didn't have many opportunities for formalized parks and playgrounds, so we had to make do with old barns, sheds and abandoned falling-down houses. We'd go in, play around, chase the copperheads and cotton mouths just for fun. Whew! Guess we were lucky we didn't get to use much playground equipment. We might have fallen off a swing and skinned our knee. Some of those old buildings had roofs that weren't really solid, due to rot--we'd discover as we'd walk around on top of them and try to watch out for the "soft" spots of woodrot.

[somemoreequalthanothers]

I built an elementary school last year. At least now they are wise enough to put 8 inches of mulch around all the equipment. That would have save us alot of scrapes and bruises back in the day.

[Ben Bolt]

I'll be damned ! I thought we were the only people who knew what a dirt ~ clod bomb was . How refreshing to read your reply ! Terrific memories indeed !

[Elsie]

And then, in HS Physics class, you learned that leaving at the 45 degeree angle got you maximum DISTANCE!

[mtbopfuyn]

After all these years I still have nightmares over an emergency room visit when mine tripped on a cushy flooring and bashed her head open to the skull at one of those "safe" playgrounds. On the other hand, at 20 mos. she had a blast climbing steep rickety steps by herself to the top of a hill and sliding down an old giant metal slide all the way down to the bottom without one boo-boo at an old "unsafe" playground.

[winodog]

They have built skateboard parks all over the valley. I took my kid to one yesterday. There was almost one hundred kids on boards, skates and bikes going in every direction running into each other and maybe 5 had helmets on.
These "parks" are much more dangerous then anything we had back then.
Kids have to much to do inside with cable TV, video games and the puter.
When I was my kids age I was out the door when I woke up and came home for lunch and dinner. I was outside till bedtime even when it was 110 degrees out.
The kids nowadays stay in till its almost dark and they dont explore like we use to.
My son will not drink tapwater. He has to have bottled water. When my parents took us to the mts, we opened the car door and were gone. Mom and dad had to usually come find us. When I lived in SC same thing. We were not allowed in the woods and thats where we spent all our time.
Kids today do not know how to have fun unless it involves money.

[Finalapproach29er]

If a kid said "smeer the Queer" out loud, he would get detention. Too bad things are so prissy today. I'm moving to a small town out in the country where my kids can run around without upsetting someone. My kids aren't going to get fat.

[The Great RJ]

Gee as a kid I even rode a bike like a hellion WITHOUT a helmet--gasp!!!

Government nannies and their trial lawyer friends won't be satisfied until your kid is wrapped in foam rubber or better yet taken to a government run child raising center where they can be totally protected.