Back in my day we didn’t have that fancy grass and dirt. We had rocks. Lots of sharp rocks.
3 Likes
I grew up in Webster Groves, in ST Louis. There was a park called “Rocket Park”, or Deer Creek Park, which had a 25’ tall slide and an even taller climbing tower.
It has since been torn down and replaced by safer equipment, but it did look cool.
It’s been a few years but I’m pretty sure this is the slide:
3 Likes
I had a similar slide!
I wonder what happened to them?
My study of black and white photos in horror movies leads me to conclude that all those children are now dead, except for one who is institutionalized in an asylum of some sort that does not follow state regulations.
3 Likes
We had jungle gyms in the 1960s like that!. Tangles of heavy steel pipe towering over blacktop. I seem to remember about a half dozen kids getting broken arms falling through those things, and the parents were like “Well, they’re kids, kids get their arms broken, it’s no surprise”.
When I broke my arm in middle school, my mom was working for a local doctor. Mom made me wait all morning in the school nurse’s office, until her lunch hour, before she came and picked me up. Then I had to ride around with her while she did her daily shopping before she took me back to the doctor’s office for a cast. Totally not kidding!
15 Likes
When I was a kid in the mid-60’s (yeah, I’m old - you want to make something of it?) they built a new elementary school with modern, “safe” playground equipment like metal animals on springs, concrete sewer pipes, and this monstrosity called a “Rocket Slide”. It looked like it sounded, a big rocket with circular stair going up and a slide coming down. The sides were vertical pipes like the robot that stopped about 4’ above the ground with an open space below the first deck. On Day 1 at the new school I slammed into the bottom of one of those pipes while being chased by bullies (yeah, I got chased by bullies - you want to make something of it?) and it took 8 stitches to sew up the gash in my head. Lord only knows how I survived the old equipment … I miss the maypole.
8 Likes
Like the other commenters said, he’s on a swing.
Native Californian here - and I can attest - these dome play structures were everywhere in the 70’s. And by the way, tanbark splinters are NOT fun.
7 Likes
And it automatically creates fun. It’s a win-win, I’d say.
1 Like
And now what’s happened to all those kids from 1900?
THEY’RE DEAD! EVERY LAST ONE!!
18 Likes
Is that first picture really from 1900? Because my school playground had a contraption like that–basically a giant metal frame–in the '70’s. Because the picture is in black and white I can’t tell if theirs was also painted orange.
I fell off the highest part of it when I was pretending to be Richard Dreyfus in Jaws. In our version Quint survived because he went to get a bigger boat teacher.
5 Likes
Collector’s Weekly did a good article a while back featuring the rocket slide:
The one pictured in the article is near my grandma’s old house in Colorado, which I used to visit as a kid. The park with the rocket was too far to walk, but I could bike there on gramma’s adult-sized bike.
I could reach the pedals, but not the ground, so to stop and not tip over, I had to swing off the bike and jump my feet down to the ground. That didn’t always work out (still have scarred up knees from that) and so just getting to the park was a thrill. Then, I would climb to the top of the tower and feel it sway, and be so overstimulated I would feel faint. Then, back to grammas for raw hot dogs and piles of candy. Good times!
10 Likes
We had playgrounds like this in the 60’s and '70’s - they were just a little closer to the ground.
2 Likes
I miss the merry-go-round! That spinning disk of centrifugal death!!!
25 Likes
Planet Earth - adopted home of humanity:
Risk-averse bunker, or dangerous playground?
5 Likes
Shit. I’m scared just looking at them. Both. One will kill me and the other give me nightmares for the rest of my life.
3 Likes
Holy Shit I remember playgrounds like that robot. Eisenhower Park on LI I believe. Thanks for the memory jolt.
I thought that I had a wild, dangerous, free range childhood, but THIS puts me to shame! Danger is FUN! Today’s helicopter parents would probably faint dead away if they saw their precious snowflakes even look in the direction of this glorious masterpiece!
2 Likes
Terra Nova Park in Richmond, BC is pretty f-ing cool. I used to have some photos of it, but the video in the link will have to do. It feels dangerous to the kids, but it feels safe for the adults. We’ve spent many days there as a family.
1 Like
