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While doing some quick internet research to feed a cranky plotbunny, I ran across this.
Coolest. Play structure. Evar.
ETA: actually since I'm feeding the bunnies, what was your favorite playground as a kid? Was it wood, metal or plastic? some combination of both? What was your favorite playground equipment? was there any you were scared of? played on/with in a not necessarily authorized fashion?
The playground at UNIS still has a big spot in my heart. it was an almost entirely wood and old tire structure that was almost entirely elevated (it had like 7 bridges on it, I shit you not) and structures vaguely reminicent of famous world buildings, including one sort of elevated gazebo that was reminicent of the Taj Mahal, another that looked like St. Basils, and this insanely complicated rope structure in the shape of the Eiffel Tower that no one would allow on a playground nowadays. My favorite part of it, like pretty much every kid who played on it was the Really Tall Slide - the playground itself had several "stories" to it, and the slide started on the top one, about 15 feet up from the ground (I'm not exaggerating, I just checked my yearbook to make sure). It was one of the last things to get put in; I remember the first recess it was done there was a line around the playground to get to go down it! The thing I was scared of was a bridge made entirely of suspended tires - you could either go through the middles or across the top, and the big dare was to see who could walk across the top of the tires without falling through them (it was a pretty high bridge, especially for a second grader). And of course I was one of those kids that climbed up slides and dove off the sides of things, but my main thing was balance walking on bridge rails as opposed to crossing the bridges themselves. I also liked to hang out in the crawl spaces beneath the playground.
Really I have a soft spot for old wooden playgrounds in general since they were the fashion when I was growing up. It breaks my heart seeing the plastic and metal and often branded play structures that have largely replaced them, even if I get that they are safer. Hell, I remember those trips to the nurse for splinter extraction. Not fun. Still.
Coolest. Play structure. Evar.
ETA: actually since I'm feeding the bunnies, what was your favorite playground as a kid? Was it wood, metal or plastic? some combination of both? What was your favorite playground equipment? was there any you were scared of? played on/with in a not necessarily authorized fashion?
The playground at UNIS still has a big spot in my heart. it was an almost entirely wood and old tire structure that was almost entirely elevated (it had like 7 bridges on it, I shit you not) and structures vaguely reminicent of famous world buildings, including one sort of elevated gazebo that was reminicent of the Taj Mahal, another that looked like St. Basils, and this insanely complicated rope structure in the shape of the Eiffel Tower that no one would allow on a playground nowadays. My favorite part of it, like pretty much every kid who played on it was the Really Tall Slide - the playground itself had several "stories" to it, and the slide started on the top one, about 15 feet up from the ground (I'm not exaggerating, I just checked my yearbook to make sure). It was one of the last things to get put in; I remember the first recess it was done there was a line around the playground to get to go down it! The thing I was scared of was a bridge made entirely of suspended tires - you could either go through the middles or across the top, and the big dare was to see who could walk across the top of the tires without falling through them (it was a pretty high bridge, especially for a second grader). And of course I was one of those kids that climbed up slides and dove off the sides of things, but my main thing was balance walking on bridge rails as opposed to crossing the bridges themselves. I also liked to hang out in the crawl spaces beneath the playground.
Really I have a soft spot for old wooden playgrounds in general since they were the fashion when I was growing up. It breaks my heart seeing the plastic and metal and often branded play structures that have largely replaced them, even if I get that they are safer. Hell, I remember those trips to the nurse for splinter extraction. Not fun. Still.
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Date: 2011-04-07 12:00 am (UTC)From:There was a school playground that I absolutely loved as a kid. Not my school, but a neighboring one. It had one of those things that you hung from and you slid across from one side to the other (it reminded me of the part in Home Alone where he goes from the house to his treehouse by a clotheshanger on a rope). And it had a "slide" of sorts made out of rolling metal tubes. Looking back, it probably wasn't the safest playground, but it sure was awesome.
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Date: 2011-04-07 02:13 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2011-04-07 02:23 pm (UTC)From:Also! At the Kids' Museum in L.A., they had a kid-sized model ant hill where we could climb through all the curved passages and tunnels. That was pretty amazing, too.