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Playground Equipment of Our Past

Photography Objects posted on Mar 16, 2010
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Description


Playgrounds used to be a child's first experience with Darwinian Selection. The play yard was full of steel pipes and hard wood, all set to give the agile fun and the inept child anything from scrapes and mild concussions to dizziness and stomach-emptying nausea. But you know, you survive and learn. The equipment that terrified you as a first grader is a welcome challenge when you're a fifth grader. And a welcome bit of nostalgia in middle age. The top item was a simple construction of steel plumbing pipe. You could clamber all over the thing. You could play "Monkey Tag." If you were agile and strong, you could get all the way to the top. And if you were a daredevil, you could grab onto one of the center bars and slide the terrifying seven feet down to the ground. The carousels showed two design philosophies. The all-metal one was easier to use. The pusher could grab those big upright rails and propel the riders to nausea-inducing RPMs. And if they were quick enough, they could swing onto the carousel and enjoy the ride themselves. The lower carousel came in two versions. The version I grew up with had only the green outer ring for seating. Kids sat with their legs on the inside, holding onto the iron bar as the pusher propelled the ride. Other riders might sit facing outward, clutching the bar behind them to avoid a quick centrifugal flight to the gravel spinning below. The second version show here features a center area was filled in with planks that let riders sit safely within the bars. BUT those on the outside were now facing outward and risking that centrifugal launch. In either version the riders' outstretched legs made it difficult for the pusher to grab those six small bars. The metal carousel was found in a small park in Pewaukee, Wisconsin. The other two pieces were found in a forgotten corner of a lakeside park in Mequon, Wisconsin.

Comments (3)


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DaveF

11:54AM | Tue, 16 March 2010

Ah, youth! We had a carousel and monkey bars that were installed into an asphalt playground. No grass, no sand, no rubber padding... asphalt. I still have scars on my knees where little pebbles were embedded from the falls I took. When that happened, you went back into the school and the teacher or school nurse would clean the wound, put a band-aid on it, and send your little butt back outside. The point, here, is that I'm alive. I wasn't emotionally scarred for life because I wasn't bubble-wrapped and coddled as a youth. We were kids, we played hard, we got hurt sometimes. It built character and taught us what our limitations were and to be aware and respect things that could potentially cause us harm if we misused them. I refer to these as the "Good Ol' Days"! Thanks for the great images and the memories they sparked.

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GreenSat

12:05PM | Sat, 20 March 2010

We had a third version of the carousel!!! No pushers needed!!! It used 'Pumpers!' There were three pumping mechanisms spaced every 120 degrees. They were each tied to an offset circle at the axis and pushing with the feet while pulling with the arms at the 3 pumping stations provided the energy reqired to make the thing spin. Speed was only limited by the friction of the bearings at the axis and the weight of the cargo which the big kids at the pumping stations would attempt to minimize by producing speeds that would send the little kids, hanging on for dear life, flying in all directions!!! Ah! Such great memories!!!

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ontar1

3:49PM | Mon, 19 April 2010

Excellent finds and outstanding captures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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