"Summer Days at the Playground"

I was reading one of the many "Memories" pages on Facebook recently and there was a comment about the playgrounds of our youth.  Well, even though it's only spring, my mind went back to the days when we, as kids in Lindenwald, enjoyed many a summer day at our neighborhood park.

Those were the days!  A summer day, heading to the park with the neighbor kids, not a care in the world....Who wouldn't want to go back in time to that?

Sure, our park had playground equipment that would be deemed unsafe, by today's safety standards.  We didn't know any better back then, I guess, and despite some scrapes and bruises, we all lived.

One of the less-safe rides was the merry-go-round.  We would all get on, and someone, (usually someone who took delight in scaring the heck out of kids) would make it go round and round fast.  We hung on for dear life and when it came to a stop, we'd be dizzy and laughing.

The teeter-totter was for suckers...or extremely trusting kids.  You'd sit on one end and another kid would sit at the other, and you'd go up and down.  The kid who weighed the most pretty much decided who would be "up" most of the time.  Our park had some smart alecks who would jump off their end, when you were on the "up" part of the ride... Your side of the teeter-totter, and your fanny, would hit the ground...hard! (Maybe some of our current back problems come from being slammed down, onto the hard ground, by the smart alecks' antics?  Maybe....)

The swings seemed safe enough -unless someone would push you and you'd go sky-high.  The daredevils would jump from the swing when it was at its highest point.  Needless to say,  I never jumped.

The slide was my go-to ride...it seemed the most laid back of all the rides.  I remember the only downside was, in the heat of the summer, the shiny metal would scorch the back of your legs... that, and the puddle that always seemed to be at the bottom of the slide.

Come to think of it!  There always seemed to be puddles everywhere at
the park...under the swings, around the merry go round...everywhere young feet had worn paths into the hard ground.  That's right!  We had the hard earth as our play surfaces.  No rubberized products...no wood chips... just good old dirt, or mud, depending on the weather that week.

Our park had "park leaders", teenagers who were hired by the city to ride herd on the neighbor kids.  Sometimes there were crafts, sometimes games, organized for us to play, but the highlight of the week was "Park Pool Day".  That's when the park leaders would walk us to the neighborhood pool, where we'd sing our "park song" for free admission, and splash  around with the same hooligans we played with at the park.

Another highlight of summers at the park were when The "Show Wagon" would make a stop for those brave enough to perform for the other kids and their parents.  Some would sing, some would dance, some would twirl batons....any of the talents they wanted to show off.  I was never brave enough to sign up and kind of admired the kids who did.    It was a fun night but I'm pretty sure, there were no major talent discoveries in Lindenwald those nights.

Times are different now...kids have so many things to occupy their time.  But summer days, spent at the playgrounds of our town, in the 50's and 60's, would be hard to beat.  And I'm so glad I was there.