Daredevil Activities

     Down the road from my Grandma's house was the coolest playground! There was a great big metal rocket ship that was three stories high and you could climb all the way up to the top on the inside. There were metal slides that came out of the sides of it and lots of poles to slide down on the outside too. My cousins and I would go there whenever we had the chance and we would play hide-and-seek in there. The metal would get very hot and it only took you once or twice to figure out that you had to be careful. I think every kid back then learned the hard way not to slide down the slide with your bare legs touching it. It didn't matter how hot it got because it was definitely the coolest playground ever! In my middle school years, I discovered another of these rocket ship playgrounds not too far from my church, so I guess it wasn't the only one around.

     In doing a little research, I found that these were 26 feet tall and were built in the 1960's. It was part of a bunch of Cold War playground equipment built to "foster children's curiosity and excitement about the space race". Eventually, these rocket ships were removed and replaced with plastic playground equipment because it was determined to have "very little play value" and had "hazardous conditions that present a great danger to young children". (I totally disagree!)

                                                                                        Wikipedia, Cold War Playground Equipment  

Coolest Rocket Ship Playground ever

     I also loved the teeter totter with it's rough wooden planks that made for some really great adventures. When we played pirate ship and someone had to "walk the plank" they would walk across one of these and fall into the "ocean"!

Memories of the teeter totter:

Getting my legs pinched up under it at the bottom

Hopping off at the bottom so the other rider fell down super fast

Trying to ride it when the other person was a lot heavier or lighter than you

Trying to walk from one end of it to the other by yourself

Slivers

     The metal slide was always a good time. These things were big and for a nice long ride down with a couple bumps along the way!
Memories of the Metal Slide:
It was HOT!
Several of us wanting to go down at the same time and being crowded and pushing each other on the ladder.
Trying to ride down two at a time or more
Trying to run up it.
Trying to run up it when kids were trying to ride down it at the same time
Covering the bottom with sand to go faster

Memories of the Merry Go Round:
Getting really, really dizzy
Several kids over the years throwing up because we kept it going so long
Running around with it a few times to get it started
Sitting on top of the bars, wrapping our legs around them and leaning all the way back while spinning
A kid running into it with his bike while it was moving and it got stuck under there

     

     Remember the playground equipment at McDonalds? I loved the Hamburglar! I guess it was all deemed unsafe at some point and replaced with plastic equipment.

     I got my first bike in 1st grade and I rode it everywhere, all the time. I don't remember ever having training wheels and I never had a helmet or pads of any kind. In elementary school, it was cool to ride your bike standing up or if you were to give a ride to a friend it was "giving them a buck". They would just sit on the back of your bike and hang on for dear life. My kids actually had pegs on their back tires for a buddy to stand on and hitch a ride. I have to say that it seems a little strange to see young kids on bikes with training wheels also wearing helmets these days. Safety is a huge issue now.

     In middle school, still with no helmets or pads, it was popular to ride our bikes with no hands. I'm not sure how anyone ever figured that out because I fell a few times before I actually picked that up, but once I did, there was no turning back. It was more comfortable than hunching over and it looked so much more cool! You get so good at it that you can actually go around curves and over bumpy surfaces. Kids these days are really missing out on the fun stuff.

     In high school, I eventually started driving and my bike became a thing of the past. I used to go to a dance club a couple nights a week and my friend Sue and I would do Chinese Fire Drills.  At the stop lights we would get out of the car and run around it then hop back in when the light turned green. Also, there was a road to her house in the country that had a big hill then a valley and back up again. At the bottom was a bridge with a creek (crick) on each side. It was very dark and I would turn off the car lights and race down it and back up. Probably one of the dumbest things I ever used to do as a teenager and the most risky, especially with a friend in the car. We both survived it and are still friends to this day so I guess it's all okay!

     I learned to swim by getting thrown into the lake at campouts. I never had swim lessons. Unless you count the time when I was a baby and I pooped my diaper in the pool and corn came floating out! My mom was so embarrassed that she got out and tried to run away but ended up falling on her butt on the deck. Anyway, I never had swim lessons, except for those times at the lake or at the beach.

     I tried to water ski once and they told me not to let go no matter what! So I got all ready and they pulled me up and then I fell forward and I hung on for dear life as they continued to drag me along the bottom of the lake because I was told to hang on NO MATTER WHAT! I think I drowned a little that day and I had two tons of sand that went down my bathing suit, and I decided that I would never try to water ski again! We kids would spend every minute of the day in the water if the parents would let us. They made us come out for lunch and dinner and then made us wait a half hour before returning to the water. It was so fun jumping off the dock and swimming out to the raft. I remember hours of fun out there with my cousins and never a life jacket was seen or used.

     I only wore a life jacket when I was on a boat in the middle of the lake. I never wore one just to swim. I find it funny to see kids at a local pool with a life jacket on. How do they learn to swim that way? The craziest thing I've seen in the last couple years was a kid wearing a life jacket at the Splash Pad near our house. What does his mother think it will do for him? I think safety precautions are getting a little crazy!

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