Posted on 07/19/2005 6:59:02 PM PDT by Dan from Michigan
Character-building recess games and activities at my 1970's elementary school playground: 1. Underdog- you pushed a person on a swing higher and higher until you ran underneath them and yelled "Underdog" 2. King of the Mountain- a parking lot worth of snow is plowed into a massive pile which smaller kids were pushed off by bigger kids, 3.Red Rover- two lines of kids with hands locked face eachother- "Red Rover, Red Rover, send Jimmy right over" at such time Jimmy was to sprint over and try to break through the line (or get clothes-lined trying), 4. All the tetherballs had a nice, soft cotton rope to which a grossly overinflated ball was attached with a pronounced metal spring clip, 5. Joust! two people tried to knock the other off a four inch wide balance beam that was 24 inches off the ground (asphalt). I remember lots of good times, the occassional cold compress, and no lawsuits...
Nope. Sorry. That horse is so bright it could cause retinal damage.
Were these young people arrested for attempted teeter-tottering?
One of my favorite Bill Cosby routines is off the "Wonderfulness" album. Well, actually, several of my favorite Cos routines are off that album, but the one I have in mind is where he discusses how he thought as a kid that the playground was intentionally designed to kill him and his friends. Like the swings. Like the spinning wheel. ("Aaaaaaggh!!!") Like the monkey bars. ("Bonk! Oh, oh, oh...) Like the teeter-totter. ("A lot of kids never had a chance to have a low voice because of the teeter-totter...)
OK, I give up. How in the world did I ever make it a full half-century without killing myself while having a little fun?
I wonder if Mexican kids are so short because of these slides. ;-)
1. Our favorite game was Suicide. This is a variation on handball where you must keep the ball in play. If you "boggle" or drop the ball, you need to run to the wall or risk getting thrown out. In Suicide, btw, you are thrown out when the person who grabs the ball after you dropped it throws it HARD at your back.
2. My kindergarter teacher, Mrs. Mayer, allowed us to play with saws and hammers.
Fresh air, dodgeball and soccer...these are the memories that grade school recess is made of.
Actually, what is happening is a rational reaction to a civil tort system gone completely haywire. Look to the trial lawyers and their greedy parents for your playground equipment. They got it in their settlements.
You are right....The teeter totter and swings were my favorite items on the playground.....and I actually lived through my childhood!! Gasp!!!!!! I also rode a bike with no helmet!!!!
If they aren't allowed to run on a playground, where *are* they allowed to run? Oh, right, on a treadmill ... silly me for asking ....
When I was in fifth grade, a huge load of sand was delivered to our school playground, to be spread around underneath all the various slides, etc. ... but it got left under the huge metal monkeybars. Imagine that, a huge pile of sand right beside the monkeybars! For about two days, until the teachers noticed what we were doing, we had the BEST time doing kamikaze leaps off the top of the monkeybars into the sand! (Probably a good eight foot leap.) Nobody got hurt, amazingly. Just too much fun ....
That's easy.
Prohibit children from using them.
Just let them sit, seat belted & helmeted, in their padded desk seats, under a teacher's watchful eye, and LOOK at the playground during recess from the safety of their classrooms.
Gen Xer's have been over protected and showered with material things. They aren't used to doing for themselves. For the most part they're gutless and self absorbed. Glad I'm not one of them.
------------------------------------------------
There are plenty of exceptions but you are correct about them as a whole...did you see the thread last week about some Xers starting to grow up ---- at the age of 40?
Funny how they don't allow running on the playground, but many will complain that so many kids are fat! Why didn't they space the playground equipment farther apart, so the kids can run? Situations like this are what is turning kids into wimps and whiners.
Those are the worst. I think they throw in the thing that looks like the spring just to add insult to injury. "Wouldn't it be great if you could actually get this thing to move?"
I had to make my kids their own see-saw.
Some of my favorite pictures of my daughter are of her playing on swings and slides. When she was around 4, we put her kiddie pool in the grass and put her slide in the pool and in one of the pictures she has her eyes squeezed shut, her arms up in the air and a huge, happy smile on her face. That picture is worth the few scrapes and bruises she's accumulated over the years.
Liberals are removing fun from childhood.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.