Stories

When I was a little kid, we had a park that our parents would drop us off for playdates and hours of fun. These hours would fly by like seconds as we covered every fun activity there was to take advantage of, making up our own games, or playing old games, to simply swinging on the swings. And if you've ever played without care, you've certainly been injured before. Mom used to dab Mercurochrome on our cuts and this is one of my strongest memories! These are some of the sites at the playground that we were most fond of as kids. SEE SAW This teeter-totter was those one of those park activities that was only fun when you played on it fairly. But with my prankster friends, that never happened! The long planks balanced in the middle of a fixed support, and on each end we would sit. Sometimes we would be one on one and other times we would pile on either end. Up and down we would go by pushing the ground alternately with their feet. However, one problem with the seesaw's design is that if one of us intentionally would jump off when the other end was in the air and they would hit the ground hard. Looking back, it was all part of the fun but it could have potentially have caused injury. We never thought about that when we were playing on them. Did you? JUNGLE GYMS: Get the Mercurochrome Ready! Pinterest These were large, metal, usually geometric-shaped contraptions that are still common on playgrounds, but they sometimes may lead to injuries when children fall off and hit their heads on the bars or when they swing on them in the wrong way! Sometimes the metal would be too hot to touch on a summer day, so newer jungle gyms are now often made of alternative materials such as rope or wood. Yep, I hit my head many of times! MONKEY BARS Pinterest (Source: Getty Images) / The monkey bars were a significant piece of playground equipment consisting of a horizontally mounted overhead ladder, from which children could swing. Back then, it was a natural challenge to see how far one could get across the monkey bars without his or her hands starting to swell from holding on to the metal bars for so long. We would hang upside down from the bars, sit on top of them feeling like the king of the world, and we would have challenges to see how many times we could swing back and forth across the row of bars. SLIDE There was nothing more memorable than going down the scorching hot slide in the summer! OUCH!! Chicago Parent SHUFFLEBOARD Shuffleboard Pucks / Mercurochrome This competitive game requires players to use special cue sticks to push weighted discs (or pucks), sliding them down a narrow court which is designed with multiple score areas, and with the purpose of having them come to rest within the best-marked scoring area. Watch one town create their new Shuffleboard Court Below, very interesting! What else did we used to do at the playground? Press "Next" to find out. KITE FLYING Before video games, there was the visual luxury of watching your own kite fly at the park with your friends and/or family. We would walk up to the field at the park, hoping for light and medium winds. There are so many different varieties of kites. We would usually have a buddy help us fly the kite since it really is a group effort. One person would hold the ball of string and the other would let the kite fly. It was always really fun to try to catch your kite before it hit the ground. ROUNDABOUT Roundabout ride at the playground. / Mercurochrome Ready All I know is that there was always that one crazy kid running around this thing, pulling it in circles at the fastest speed possible. This was one that I got hurt on a lot! I'd come limping up to Mom in the front yard and she'd go get the Mercurochrome and first aid. Ouch, it did sting, but it was worth the fun we had! Whoever remained on the roundabout ride the longest without getting sick was the true warrior of the group (and probably just as crazy as the kid pulling the ride around). MAZE Pinterest Sometimes the playground included a maze for us to walk through. It used to be so much fun yelling towards our friends who were straggling far behind us, guiding them through it. Every now and then the walls of the maze contained cool designs, making it look prehistoric or just plain artsy, probably to use as landmarks. SANDBOX Barn inspired sandbox / Mercurochrome Ready The sandbox was the most fun to play in at the playground. We would bring our own shovels from home to construct our own archeological digs, we would bury each other all the way to our heads in sand, and sometimes, if we wanted to be funny, we would step on the head of our shovel to make the stick rise up and smack us in the face. My parents would tell me that if I dug deep enough, I'd get to China... ... For the record, I never got to China... THE ICE CREAM MAN Good Humor Ice Cream Truck Whenever that catchy nursery rhyme jingle could be heard in the far distance, kids would scatter and run towards the sound. The object behind the sound was the ice cream truck. This could very well be considered the base of our "coffee break" during our playground playtime. In the summer time, carrying an ice cream cone back to the playground was just as proud of an accomplishment as carrying a trophy. SWINGS Swing set fun. / Mercurochrome Ready The swing set is a crucial aspect of the playground. In a generic swing set, there was inevitably two swings meant for little babies, and two meant for the older kiddos. So many teenage romantic moments were held on swing sets, as were fun games that we made up gradually as we grew up. And if you were real lucky, your dad would cement the legs into the ground so you could swing as high as possible without worry of crashing the entire set to the ground! We would twist the swing all the way around and let ourselves go, spinning fiercely, or we would swing to the highest height that we could, and jump off the swing, flying into the air. Sometimes, to be jerks, we would throw the swing over the bar so nobody else could get to it. Sometimes if we were brave enough, we would stand on the swings and have our friend push us. Oh, to be young. PICNICS Family Picnic, 1969 / Mercurochrome Mom would pack some sandwiches and some vegetables prior to taking us to the playground. All of this food would usually be packed into a nice picnic basket. She would also pack a blanket into the car along with the basket. In the middle of our playtime, mom would call us over. She would have the blanket laid out on the grass, gesturing for us to come sit down. We would sit Indian style on the blanket, chowing down on our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. After we were done, we were allowed to go play on the playground again. What other playground appliances do you remember playing on? Let us know in the comments section below. Related: Slides: The Pinnacle Of The Playground Things 70s Kids Did During The Summer That’ll Make You Say, I Remember That The Fun Things We Did, As Kids, That We Lived To Tell About