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Wednesday, February 15, 2012

The Playground

The monkey bars, my personal favorite. Climb up the ladder and then swing, hang and hand-5walk across or climb to the very top and crawl across. I suppose the boys liked the monkey bars because they could get a glimpse of the girls panties as they climbed and hung out there, but that never occurred to this little girl.


I did enjoy watching the boys try to out-do each other from the relative safety of the railroad ties surrounding the equipment area.  A few of them got hurt. A broken arm one time when a sixth grader jumped off the top of the slide because someone said he couldn't. I guess he could, but it really hurt.


We would walk around a lot talking about anyone who wasn't walking with us, girls do that. It's why the smart girls never miss the walk around, not ever. 


Back in the day, my childhood late 1800's, we didn't have rubber or even wood chips under our playground stuff. If you took a header off a swing, you hit gravel. OUCH
If you forgot to put your feet down at the end of the slide, I may or may not have done this several times, you fell on your butt in stones or a mud puddle if it had rained in the last week. The monkey bars? Deadly if you slipped off the very tip top, which I also might or might have done once.


Today's little girls don't wear dresses so much, so the boys don't get a glimpse, that's a good thing. Not sure any of the playgrounds have stones or gravel anymore and that's surely a good thing. But  I bet some little girls still walk around talking about all the girls who aren't taking that walk! Some things don't change.


Jo

15 comments:

  1. (shakes her head with a grin) "late 1800's"... all I can say is 'darlink, whatever you are using on your face is mahvelous!' ;-) You made me laugh Jo, not the first time, won't be the last time, but it was a good time!

    I can remember wrapping our sweaters around the straight bars and looping our knees over them then swirling like we were some type of human swing. After we got really good at it, we would do both legs, without holding on with our hands, and go all the way around then jump off... well one time, I missed and landed in that wonderful gravel you spoke of flat on my back. I knocked the wind right out of myself. LOL... yep, gravel... I remember the 1800's too!

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    1. Laughing is good! WOW you had gravel, too? cool. I knocked the wind outa meself a few more times that I would care to remember. Running down our basement stairs was one place of repeated stupidness. The cement blocks over the bottom stairs were a little lower than my head as I bopped down the steps. Then I would find meself flat on the concrete floor and unable to breathe. ah...the memories! :) ♥

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  2. I remember--back in the day (I'm not quite from the 1800's but you know mid 1900's is close enough ;) lol), we didn't have fancy chalk for the sidewalk (unless one of us was willing to break off a piece from the black board inside) so we would use a rock to draw our hopscotch squares and then use that same rocks to toss onto the skip square. If I was on a playground with no sidewalk anywhere--we'd fetch twigs from the nearby woods to make our hopscotch squares. Sometimes we were forced to use our imagination on the playground :O HA HA!!

    I enjoyed your post Jo--you made me smile :D Cheers, Jenn

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    1. Oh, the imagination card! Some of today's kids still do that! Not enough of them, for sure, but there are games out there and books with imagination required to play! I'm a fan of those. I'm a fan of Jenn, too.

      ♥ thanks.

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  3. You are too funny!! It used to be a lot more dangerous on the playground!! It is a wonder we all survived.

    Kathy
    http://gigglingtruckerswife.blogspot.com

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    1. The amazing strength of the boomers! We survived so many things that are now against the law or medically ill-advised or simply NOT DONE in good homes. I honestly think we'd have healthier kids if we allowed them to obtain some natural immunity by actually being exposed to germs! There is no bubble out in the real world and by the time mom's stop sanitizing their child's world, it's too late. The natural anti-bodies or whatever they are have not been developed and every possible germ lights the poor child up and attacks! I am sure there is some truth in all of this, somewhere.
      ♥ glad you're back, full time.

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  4. yep, the playground equipment may have changed, but the kids behaviors haven't....

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  5. Honestly, I am surprised I am still alive after those bygone days. I NEVER confessed my antics to my kids until they were older for fear they would copy me. And I'm sure the late 1800's is a bit of an exaggeration ( if not, and you have discovered Ponce de Leon's fountain of youth, please share the map coordinates. :-)

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    1. It is amazing that we all survived the deadly world we grew up in, isn't it? That fountain of youth has eluded me, for sure. Dang it.

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  6. I was never a climber. In fact, I didn't 'do' playgrounds at all. I could normally be found in a corner, hiding, probably reading or off in my head with my imaginary worlds. I do remember drawing hopscotch grids though, and 'flying' on the swings (with that stomach churning lurch when you went too high), and literally flying off the witch's hat (now banned from playgrounds because it clearly killed every one of us who is now a parent with kids!) Loved this, Jo, for the memories it evoked and your wonderful humour :o)

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    1. Thanks Gill. Glad you enjoyed it. It was fun to go back to the playground, but the lessons escaped me! I don't think I learned anything on the playground except that falling hurts and never miss the 'walk'! LOL ♥

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  7. I used to love the monkey bars the best too. I had such great upper arm strength as a child from pulling myself on top of them so much. I have no memory of the walk. I guess it's because I was playing too hard to notice them talking about me.

    Joyce
    http://joycelansky.blogspot.com/

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    1. Just as well, you probably didn't like those girls anyway! LOL Maybe it was just MY school! LOL

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