contest entry

[misstia]

summertime when some of us had metal playground equipment to play on! that stuff got HOT!!

Comments

[gullinbursti.livejournal.com]

The park we would go to sometimes had that slide! Except instead of the clock face and mouse, it had fins to make it a rocket ship. Google street view indicates it's been replaced by shorter, pedestrian playground equipment in the intervening decades.

[zhukora1.livejournal.com]

Yes! The one I played on was a rocket ship too. I was trying to figure out if I was just a dumb kid that had thought it was a rocket when it was really a castle turret, or if it had actually been different from the pic. Thanks for confirming I wasn't a dumb kid (at least not about that). :D

[murakozi.livejournal.com]

I remember the rocket ship version, too. I recall it being larger, but that's probably just because I was a lot smaller back then.

[chicklet-girl.livejournal.com]

If you're talking Brackett Park in Minneapolis, I fell off that rocket slide when I was five and almost tore my starter earring out of my earlobe. Good times. (They've now turned the slide into public art (http://omahamidcenturymodern.blogsome.com/2008/06/23/houston-all-systems-go/), because so many people missed it.)

[misstia]

that's awesome!!

[weelisa.livejournal.com]

I used, back when I still had baby-fat, to have a rocking horse with that big spring attached. One day I managed to get some thigh flab caught in the spring (don't ask me how - I also managed to pierce my lip with a fishing lure another day - I was a very determined child) - that hurt sooooo much. I quiver now just looking at those.

[franklanguage.livejournal.com]

I remember once when we were staying at a Holiday Inn there were open balconies in the halls, and I put my knee between two railings, then couldn't figure out why I couldn't get it back out. (It was because I had bent it, making the knee joint wider than the space.) I had to yell and scream until someone came and got me.

[elementalv.livejournal.com]

The bottom left picture could have been taken at my elementary school.

You know, kids these days have it easy, with their soft landing spots. We had concrete and pebbles, and those scraped us up just fine.

[meezergal.livejournal.com]

You're so right! I remember those bouncy animal things, and being torn between wanting to ride them as fast and hard as I could, but being afraid of falling off and skinning the hell out of myself.

Ah, youth. Kids DO have it so easy these days!

YES

[1girl.livejournal.com]

Oh god, that metal slide in those short shorts.

[tabaqui]

BWA!
Yes. I remember super-heated metal playground equipment! Jayzus, but that stuff was uncomfortable.

[maz-z.livejournal.com]

The brown/blue saddle mate in the second picture on the left looks like a Squirtle with its eyes closed.

[canonfire.livejournal.com]

My uncle worked for Game Time. He may have actually designed some of that stuff.

YES

[cactuswren.livejournal.com]

And I would give anything if someone would start manufacturing these in adult sizes and installing them in public parks. Anything. You want to see a cardio workout? Get four grownups on the Buck-A-Bout.

Re: YES

[charlotterhys.livejournal.com]

It's so true!

[gillianinoz.livejournal.com]

YES!

Many's the time we burned our bums on the metal slipery dip!

[chr1st1an.livejournal.com]

August in Florida + those metal slides = 3rd degree burns.

Seriously, would have been more fun to just go lay on the hood of a car.

[princesslollyoz.livejournal.com]

that curved ladder climber was on my grade school playground, i remember the time i tried to climb it upside down on a hot day, burned my hands, landed on my back and got the wind knocked out of me

[murakozi.livejournal.com]

Playground equipment was much more fun back then.

[seamonkey-mags.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, a YES vote for painful nostalgia!

[stmatthew.livejournal.com]

YES! These playground sets were at a park I used to go to as a little kid. It was Byrd Park in Kankakee, IL. Oh the memories... There also used to be a petting zoo there. We gave a pet hen to them when the place we lived told us we couldn't keep her.

It never dawned on me that these were common playground sets sold all over. I thought the ones I played on were special. Hehe.

[mermaid-darling.livejournal.com]

I seem to be the only person who DIDN'T have these playground sets as a kid. As a result I of course wish I could play on them right now! They look like a lot more fun than what I had growing up.