Childrens play areas (Twas called the park in my day)

[tigersaw]

Just watching tv whilst doing the boring bit of my morning shift, its showing a bunch of fat kids struggling with the effort of picking a ball up before opening their 12th bag of crisps. The report goes on to show the super spongey super safe under utilised childrens play areas.
It made me wonder what happened to all the proper park equipment - sky high slides, the witches hat (fantastic), merry go round, multi seat see-saws, huge swings, paddling pools, monkey frames - all built with a healthy disregard to namby pamby health and safety.

I remember clearly falling off an swing aged about 7 and bashing the back of my head on the concrete surface a treat, rushing home to find my mum. Note I was out on my own down the park. I can remember loads of occasions I came a cropper under the age of 9 while unattended, going home getting dusted down and back out like all the kids in the village. Legends of kids getting dragged in the merry-go-round or chopping off their scrotum on the slide were enough to instill a bit of health and safety, after all someone had to take one for the team. Slippery rocks? Slip down break your arm and Dad would say 'That'll teach you'. Now its 'I'm suing the council'.
Happier days. Now I would probably be taken into care.

we still have a couple of play areas like that around by us, so if you want to play just PM and come on over!! LOL

[timwilky]

No parks anywhere near where we lived as kids, although we had plenty of fields to play in and other attractions. I remember we had a swing that would take us about 30ft above the coke pile for a foundry. At the far extent of the swing was another tree. We would grab hold of that , climb higher and swing back.

One kid seeing us do it, tried himself. Doh. Hold the rope with one hand and grab a branch with the other. Not both. Broken arm. bust specs and bruises he learnt. We used to help the guys load scrap into the cupola. I learnt about pattern making, helped out with 3 race teams in an adjacent unit. etc. Now the Health and Safety lot would have a fit at kids being in such evironments.

Same with my brother who got in the way of the haymaking. cut into his ankle, 18 months in plaster makes you learn.

Crisp, they were what we got with a bottle of lemonade if mum and dad left us in the car whilst they popped into a pub (I can count on 1 hand the number of times that must have happened). Shock horror, we were even abandoned

Have to echo the sentiments and comments above ...
I remember our local park used to have 2 "play areas" ... the "diddy swings" and the "big swings" ... the "diddy swings" consisted of a concrete castle that you could cram about half a dozen "under 12s" into, a small slide, a small see-saw and a small pair of swings.
The "big swings" consisted of a maypole - complete with iron/steel chains at the end of which was the skull-shattering "handle" (seen many a kid whacked in the face with those), a huge slide which was so tall (or it seemed it back then) that they put a cage around the top of it (think that got put on after a girl in my school threw herself off the top of it), see-saws made of iron girders that me and my brother used to whack one another in the face with (it was a competition to see who would jump off first, leaving the other person to hit the floor with a THUD, and then be smacked on the underside of the chin as the see-saw bounced up off the floor), several swings made from rubber and iron chains, which usually ended up wrapped around the top pole they were attached to (by the "big kids"), and a merry go round that was surrounded by lose gravel so that not only did you lose your footing, but you also lost several layers of skin at the same time or as you fall off. Oh and that slide?! I ripped the web of skin between forefinger n thumb when I was sliding down it, hands on the rails, and caught a screw-head as I flew past.
Not once did anyone EVER consider sueing the council ... you fell over/down/off, injured yourself (sometimes quite badly), but you ran home, got it patched up and were back out again before it started to go dark and you HAD to go home anyway! LMAO

Great days ... being terrorised by the older kids, chased by a pit bull terrier, fishing in the "big lake", collecting frogs from the "little lake", riding our bikes around the park at "break neck" speeds (sic) to try and evade capture from "The Parkies" (park wardens whom we used to taunt because they were on foot), climbing trees (and falling out), jumpers for goalposts ... ahhh those were the days ... and not a paedophile in sight!

I'll disagree and be my usual argumentative self

I'll certainly agree that excessive blame culture is a bad thing, but I don't really think playground improvements are being excessively driven by that, they're driven mainly by the desire to simply make them a bit safer. As has been amply highlighted above, falling from the swings onto concrete often resulted in really quite nasty injuries. I don't think inflicting unnecessary pain and suffering really teaches life lessons too well. Falling from a climbing frame onto a soft surface is still going to hurt, falling onto concrete however could be really nasty (potentially permanently). I suffered the typical concrete playground injuries as a kid but I don't think I really learnt those lessons any better than kids today. Using that logic would be kind of like suggesting that spikes attached to the front of Volvos would teach bikers and kids crossing better about road awareness.

Remember that in the really olden days, kids playgrounds were trees - and falling out of those generally resulted in a soft-ish landing onto soil. We only had this odd period from the 50s to the late 80s where kids were landing on concrete, we're now heading back to the playground surfaces of old, which still teach that falling hurts but limit a bit the potential to really hurt.

"Health and Safety" is one of those phrases that's easy to bandy around with bad connotations, like "Political Correctness" and "Human Rights". They all have their good points too though; Health and Safety also results in compulsory bike helmets and car seat belts - perfect examples of the "nanny state" saying "no, we really do know best, you're doing this for your own good whether you like it or not".

[SoulKiss]

Originally Posted by Pedro68

... and not a paedophile in sight!

Thats cos they were hiding in the bushes.

Nowadays with all the time spent on the internet their bush-hiding skills have been lost, hence they get spotted more

FACT!

Ahhh, I had it all when I was a kid...

... the park with it's collection of ancient swings, slides and wall of death roundabout ...

... fields full of ponies, fallen trees and ditches to jump...

... the local woods, complete with realxing bluebell glades and dead tree spooky bit...

... oh yeah, and a small stream with ducks n frogs n stuff...

... but best of all - the building site.

Oh man, hours of fun playing in foundation ditches, mucking about with large lumps of concrete and metal poles, climbing unfinished walls the height of a house (cos that what they were ) and practising gymnastics on the top or on the scaffolding poles.
You truely have no fear when you are 8, thirty feet up in the air on top of a wall, nothing to catch you and running along doing flips and somersaults.

Taken into care - pah - I was certifiable...

... and enjoyed every minute of it.






Never fell once - I left breaking bones until I was an adult and it hurt more.

Just remembered - park bushes always had the soggy remains of some filthy rag mag lurking within. Guess the internet changed all that

Seems Soulkiss is right - they were hiding in the bushes all along, and they brought along alternative entertainment for quiet days...

[SoulKiss]

Originally Posted by MiniMatt

Just remembered - park bushes always had the soggy remains of some filthy rag mag lurking within. Guess the internet changed all that

Seems Soulkiss is right - they were hiding in the bushes all along, and they brought along alternative entertainment for quiet days...

You will find, that if you listen to me, I am never wrong.

At least in my opinon/universe/special place :P