Playground Memories

When I began reading the comments on my Playground Memories post below I got a wonderful surprise. My post had been chosen as Post of the Day over at David's Authorblog! I'm honored and humbled at his mention.Thank you David and a great big thank you as well to all who left gracious comments.

The teacher part of me is always fascinated by the little country schools I come upon in my travels around the countryside. The one above was in a grove of huge old trees. It was shady and cool. Rather than tear it down this one had been turned into a community center. Notice the red pump in the front. I can imagine on a hot day a teacher pumping away and the kids bent over drinking straight from the pump.

The slide was under a tree out of the sunlight. I can remember almost getting burned many times sliding in the hot sun. Come recess time you did not want to be the first one down the slide! When I was in the third grade we had a slide at least twice as high as this one. A classmate decided when he got to the top he was going to slide down the support pole to the ground. I happened to be down at the bottom. When he slid down he caught my dress with his foot and ripped it around the empire waist. Mrs. Goad stapled my dress together for the rest of the day.

I never did like Jeff!

Ah, the playground merry-go-round. The one piece of playground equipment that promised to trip you up and send you flying. This was the one activity I shyed away from during my childhood. It was always spinning round and round loaded with kids. When I look back to those days it's a wonder more kids weren't hurt. Surprisingly I only remember one child breaking an arm on our playground.

There was only one of these spring toys in the yard. The rest probably rusted away. You could get those things going back and forth so fast you could go flying off the front and planting your face in the ground if you weren't careful.

Swings - the one favorite piece of playground equipment everyone wanted to play on and there was never enough for everybody. They don't make this kind anymore. They're said to be too dangerous. Well, maybe so, but I can still remember swinging in the breeze and dreaming of what I wanted to be when I grew up and the voice of my best friend taunting me, "I bet I can swing higher than you."

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