I'm not even that old but when they started tearing down the metal and wood playgrounds in the late 80s we just went out into the woods and hammered boards to trees where we could break our arms in natural surroundings.
The most massive swing set in the entire universe used to reside in the playground at my old elementary school. You could not move it more than 10 feet or so just by sitting and kicking your legs. You had to stand on the rubber seat, grab the steel chains and do this pumping action to propel this thing. It took a good minute to finally get anywhere, when you were really pushing it you moved fast and got serious air, to the point the swing would creep back a bit at full height and you were holding the chains for dear life. One day, I jumped off the swing into the sandbox. I timed the release just right as to maximize both height and distance. I've never flown before, it was amazing, until I landed feet first and promptly went forward and straight down smacking my face into the sand like a boulder dropped from the cliffside. The sand actually scarred my forehead in this weird bumpy pattern, like thousands of little red dots in a cluster. I never flew again after that. I did ride the swing of course, just never let go of the chains.
RalphHythloday on October 30th, 2020 at 22:16 UTC »
You survive that as a child, WWI doesn’t seem so bad.
MurderBurgered on October 30th, 2020 at 23:00 UTC »
I'm not even that old but when they started tearing down the metal and wood playgrounds in the late 80s we just went out into the woods and hammered boards to trees where we could break our arms in natural surroundings.
Tarantula_Saurus_Rex on October 30th, 2020 at 23:18 UTC »
The most massive swing set in the entire universe used to reside in the playground at my old elementary school. You could not move it more than 10 feet or so just by sitting and kicking your legs. You had to stand on the rubber seat, grab the steel chains and do this pumping action to propel this thing. It took a good minute to finally get anywhere, when you were really pushing it you moved fast and got serious air, to the point the swing would creep back a bit at full height and you were holding the chains for dear life. One day, I jumped off the swing into the sandbox. I timed the release just right as to maximize both height and distance. I've never flown before, it was amazing, until I landed feet first and promptly went forward and straight down smacking my face into the sand like a boulder dropped from the cliffside. The sand actually scarred my forehead in this weird bumpy pattern, like thousands of little red dots in a cluster. I never flew again after that. I did ride the swing of course, just never let go of the chains.