dirtydeed
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dirtydeed
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B2650 BH77, U27-4R2, BX23TLBM, box blade, rear blade, flail mower, Stump Grinder
when my wife hit one, I said screw the diagram. I'll just send an actual pic.
We had all of those in a local park, circa 1955. Also had a really high metal (of course) slide - probably 14~15 feet - with no rails. All of them were installed atop an asphalt surface.There may be some actual pictures somewhere in boxes we move as generations die off, but here are some pics that resemble the equipment in the "town" playground when I was a kid. The volunteer fire company maintained a small park for the kids in that end of town. There was a baseball field and a few pieces of equipment.
The jungle gym was a pipe assembly very much like the one in the picture below. It could get slippery when wet and there were a few bruises and damaged teeth.
The merry-go-round was just like the picture below. A kid with strong legs could stand in the center and get it going fast enough to make the kids on the seats scream (and a few times even fall off).
The swingset in the picture looks like a smaller model from the same manufacturer that we had. Ours had the slide at one end, three swings next to that, then a fixed pipe bar at around 6' off the ground and finally two see-saws. the swing seats were made of 2x8's with metal plates top and bottom so they wouldn't split. They were a lot easier to jump from that those newfangled rubber ones. The see-saws were maybe 2x12's with pipe T handles and metal scalloped gadgets on the bottom to allow for some adjustment. Smarter kids didn't use the sandbox because the cats did
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Saw a bunch of kids fall. Took a few falls myself. Never saw a truly serious injury, though. Just some cuts, scrapes, and bruises. We survived.
There was no "Playground Monitor" either.
Looks just like what we had when I was in elementary school in the late 50s.There may be some actual pictures somewhere in boxes we move as generations die off, but here are some pics that resemble the equipment in the "town" playground when I was a kid. The volunteer fire company maintained a small park for the kids in that end of town. There was a baseball field and a few pieces of equipment.
The jungle gym was a pipe assembly very much like the one in the picture below. It could get slippery when wet and there were a few bruises and damaged teeth.
The merry-go-round was just like the picture below. A kid with strong legs could stand in the center and get it going fast enough to make the kids on the seats scream (and a few times even fall off).
The swingset in the picture looks like a smaller model from the same manufacturer that we had. Ours had the slide at one end, three swings next to that, then a fixed pipe bar at around 6' off the ground and finally two see-saws. the swing seats were made of 2x8's with metal plates top and bottom so they wouldn't split. They were a lot easier to jump from that those newfangled rubber ones. The see-saws were maybe 2x12's with pipe T handles and metal scalloped gadgets on the bottom to allow for some adjustment. Smarter kids didn't use the sandbox because the cats did
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Back then most kids were smart enough that if they did something stupid on the playground equipment and got hurt, they usually didn't do it again. Unless they were double dog dared to do it.
Daren Todd
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My school had two play grounds one on each end of the school. A smaller one for the younger kids whose classes were on the north wing, and for the older kids whose classes were on the southern wing. The southern side had one like in your picture, plus a longer one.There may be some actual pictures somewhere in boxes we move as generations die off, but here are some pics that resemble the equipment in the "town" playground when I was a kid. The volunteer fire company maintained a small park for the kids in that end of town. There was a baseball field and a few pieces of equipment.
The jungle gym was a pipe assembly very much like the one in the picture below. It could get slippery when wet and there were a few bruises and damaged teeth.
The merry-go-round was just like the picture below. A kid with strong legs could stand in the center and get it going fast enough to make the kids on the seats scream (and a few times even fall off).
The swingset in the picture looks like a smaller model from the same manufacturer that we had. Ours had the slide at one end, three swings next to that, then a fixed pipe bar at around 6' off the ground and finally two see-saws. the swing seats were made of 2x8's with metal plates top and bottom so they wouldn't split. They were a lot easier to jump from that those newfangled rubber ones. The see-saws were maybe 2x12's with pipe T handles and metal scalloped gadgets on the bottom to allow for some adjustment. Smarter kids didn't use the sandbox because the cats did
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It also had the 20ft tall steel A- frame posts that serviced 6 swings.
The smaller playground had a smaller version of your top photo, that had a chin up bar, as well as the monkey bars.
And yeah, between the distance you got off the swings when jumping off, or the three sets of steel structures, it's a wonder more people didn't end up with broken arms.
I broke my arm slipping off a wooden set of monkey bars that replaced the steel structure.
My only injury on the steel structure was a chipped front tooth when I slipped.
The playground also had a set of various lengths of telephone pole cut off flat and planted vertically in the ground in a semi circle so you could jump from one to the next rising up to about 6ft in height.
We used to get one of those steel merry go rounds spinning so fast, it would launch kids off into the crowd standing around it
We had one of the ’cube’ type gym sets like that one in your photo, but also a larger pyramid type with a center pole much like a fireman’s pole to slide back down after climbing to the top. I still wonder what kind and how much math was used to determine just how close to death a child would be after falling off. But then again, folks just kinda let stupid work itself out back then. A few smaller kids did fall and receive some pretty serious injuries, so the pyramid was removed. The crazy part was they left 4 steel poles standing for us to find on our bikes while chasing each other on them or just racing each other. The front rider was almost always looking back and the second place rider invariably ran over the first one. I guess he bicycle accidents were safer than the falling ones.There may be some actual pictures somewhere in boxes we move as generations die off, but here are some pics that resemble the equipment in the "town" playground when I was a kid. The volunteer fire company maintained a small park for the kids in that end of town. There was a baseball field and a few pieces of equipment.
The jungle gym was a pipe assembly very much like the one in the picture below. It could get slippery when wet and there were a few bruises and damaged teeth.
The merry-go-round was just like the picture below. A kid with strong legs could stand in the center and get it going fast enough to make the kids on the seats scream (and a few times even fall off).
The swingset in the picture looks like a smaller model from the same manufacturer that we had. Ours had the slide at one end, three swings next to that, then a fixed pipe bar at around 6' off the ground and finally two see-saws. the swing seats were made of 2x8's with metal plates top and bottom so they wouldn't split. They were a lot easier to jump from that those newfangled rubber ones. The see-saws were maybe 2x12's with pipe T handles and metal scalloped gadgets on the bottom to allow for some adjustment. Smarter kids didn't use the sandbox because the cats did
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Darwinian theory was still taught in school back then and those who couldn’t learn it from the books either learned the hard way or didn’t learn. One lesson I learned on the cube was that good balance is not an option if you want to stand on the top. At least all those bars slowed down the fall and limited the damage to bruises and a few chipped teeth. One remembered the stunt being attempted and why not to attempt it again.
Another way to put it was if you’re gonna be stupid, ya better be tough. I sometimes wonder how I lived past age 14.
dirtydeed
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B2650 BH77, U27-4R2, BX23TLBM, box blade, rear blade, flail mower, Stump Grinder