Found a really large tire once, so big that a 10 year-old could crawl in the thing while his friends prepared to roll the tire down a rather long hill.
That was one helluva afternoon. I’m surprised my head still isn’t ringing.
Also had a trampoline. That was bad.
The treehouse with attendant launch pad and swing rope was worse. The treehouse was about 15 feet up, the launch pad a couple of feet higher. We found this really long rope and had no problem fashioning a swing that we could throw up to the launch pad. The person on the pad, of course, caught the rope and then jumped, clamboring about 6 inches as to place their ass on the knot that we so helpfully tied there.
But what took it to the next level was when we spent a day repositioning the trampoline, seeing who could land on it with the longest leap from the top-arc of the swing. Jump off the pad, hope like hell you can get your ass on that knot, swing down to about 4-inches off the ground (you really had to tuck your legs), and then, at the top of the swing, let go, hoping your momentum and innate understanding of physics allows you to land on the trampoline.
Had go karts, with motors. Even let the 7 year-old (me) drive them.
Bicycles. Not so dangerous in and of themselves (usually), but normal bike riding wasn’t enough for me. I needed ramps. Big ones. Big ones at the bottom of hills, with the ramp pointing over some gully or creek or something (my brother, once). I once set up this thing where I was to hit three ramps in a row… man, if I had hit those last two like I planned, it would’ve been awesome!
I remember when my mom had old matresses she was throwing out and my brother and I still had a medium-sized home swingset (not industrial-school sized but not toddler sized either.) We put the matresses out in the field and launched ourselves onto them. I’d like to do that on a real swingset someday…it’s a lot more fun launching yourself from a swingset when you “know” you can’t get hurt!
At my elementary school, we had the most dangerous piece of playground equipment I have ever seen. It was basically a wooden box, with the long axis of the box going up into the air about ten feet or so, and being about six feet wide. Suspended in this box were two metal poles, connected by chains on either end to the inside of the wooden box. The purpose of this thing? To climb up the poles, of course! Which my friends and I did at almost every recess. We would have races to see who was fastest, hang upsidedown by our legs on the poles, and do things that would make school officials today die of a massive heart attack if they saw a kid doing them.
Remember when there were plain old Slip ‘N’ Slides? Not like the ones now that have the inflatable cushion on the end, but those that ran that flimsy ass piece of plastic right off on to the grass. We always thought it was great fun to see who had the most, and best, stains/burns from collisions with the ground. Ah, those were the days!
OK, I have you all beat. I spent several years in Iceland as a kid. Went to school in quonset huts. Next to the school was a playground where kids were supposed to go at recess. On the other side of the school was a place we were never supposed to go – and abandoned mine field.
In my elementary school, only the older kids (grades 5-8) were allowed to be pushers; younger kids just got to hop on & ride. It was a great honor to be promoted to 5th grade, and become a merry-go-round pusher.
I never saw one o’ them fancy store-boughten ones. Made lots of my own out of buttons and string. They’re cool.
Dinsdale, I think the fancy version of what you’re talking about is a Wheel-O. I got one when I was younger at Cracker Barrel, and I think I saw one there not too long ago. After a quick google search all I found was this. Actually, I think I just saw one on That 70s Show the other day. Makes me wish I knew where mine was!
I think that they were around in some places, because I was born in 1986 and when I was 7 or 8 I got ahold of some. Threw the thing one way and tried to throw the other the same…let go early and it landed smack in the bottom of our pool. Sad day, that was. We didn’t get a pool until the next summer…
Of course, my family could have also kept these lawn darts from pre-ban and I just found them then…
Incidentally, reading that article gives you a pretty concise impression of how the F-104 and F-16 may have both earned the derogatory nickname “Lawn Darts”, and I doubt it was because an F-104 Starfighter became embedded in anyone’s head!
When I was in high school in Oklahoma (maybe 6 years ago), we had see-saws and merry-go-rounds at the town park, but that was a fairly in-the-sticks kinda town.
Also, when I lived in Japan, we had a plastic version of the Klackers, if the ones we had are the same as your Klackers (I didn’t click the link). Two balls tied to a stick by strings, right? Or in the case of the ones I had living at Yokota Air Base, two plastic balls connected by lengths of plastic to a plastic stick (all bright colors, of course).
Oh, and when I was in the 6th or 7th grade, it snowed one time in our neighborhood (yeah, once) and all the roads iced over. Down the street from where I lived, was a long hill lined by empty lots, ending in a 90 degree curve (or someone’s garage, depending on your perspective). We went down that hill in whatever sled-like materials we could imrovise, including flattened cardboard boxes, garbage can lids, and garbage cans. I was the only weirdo with an actual sled (I used to live in Japan, where it snowed from November to March in a warm year), a cheap molded red plastic thing with two plastic hand brakes that also served to steer (not as useful as you would expect on ice-covered pavement).
So, I have decided on a number of things:
Old people were incredibly stupid as kids
I must ask my parents how they passed their free time as kids.
The problem with society today is that kids aren’t allowed to explore their self-destructive tendencies until they have access to alcohol and/or automobiles.
A few years ago I visited the small town of Katanning in Western Australia, which had an awesome All Ages Adventure Playground. I swear, the council must never have heard of OH&S, because there were some mindbogglingly scary and damn dangerous rides. There was a massive tilting gyroscopey roundabout, several rope swings so high they had towers built to climb on board, really tall slides… I have photos somewhere, I’ll try and post them soon.
Oh, and my science museum has a 7 metre long vertical slide - as in, you fall the first 1.5m, then the curve of the slide catches you, and slows you down. Very cool, VERY scary. Quite pricey for us, insurance-wise!
What, no one had a rope swing? It be perfect, they had to be out in the woods, or over a river, or lake edge.
It consisted of a big thick rope, with a big knot in the end tied to a big branch of a big tree. You wrapped your legs around the rope above the know, then your friends pushed you as hard as they could… now thw fun part… You were to jump off at the zenith of the arch. If over a body of water, you made a huge SPLASH! If not, you got a bruise, or a twisted ankle.
Jarts, are just a weiner’s way of playing mumbly peg
A rainy day. Me and my sister (I was about 8, she about 11) and a breakfast tray. Oh, and some very steep stairs.
That was the day I learned that flying into a glass door headfirst isn’t a good idea. Can’t remember what we told our parents, but I know it wasn’t the truth!
Well, it was occupied by the Allies during the Second World War on the time-honoured “we are violating your neutrality to protect you from having your neutrality violated by the bad guys” basis. That might have entailed a few minefields. There was also the big base at Keflavik thta probably also resulted in a fair amount of UXO of various types.
We always thought it was great fun to see who had the most, and best, stains/burns from collisions with the ground. Ah, those were the days!
