Gael linked to this fabulous archive of pages from a 1970’s playground equipment catalog. It’s not generally the type of link I go nuts over, but I checked it out anyway. And how cool is this? I’ve played on, like, all this stuff. I’m having some serious nostalgia here. My elementary school had the Mountain Climber, and I seriously think it’s the first thing I ran to on the first day of kindergarten. I loved that thing. I’d play house in it. And the playground near my Grandma’s house was even cooler. It had several of the Saddle Mates. I’m positive I’ve ridden the ram, the donkey, and the duck. It had a Buck-A-Bout and several Rainbow Climbers too. I also remember making it to the top of a Bell Buoy. (We cheated and used our bare feet to kinda “walk” up the second pole.) Playgrounds were so fun back then.
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Looking at this, what amazes me are the prices! They’re so inexpensive! (I know that’s not in millenia cash, but still…)
And I love how it’s all just welded steel. None of that namby-pamby playground stuff you have nowadays, where the swing chains are covered in plastic and stuff. And how they’ll just whack together some big bars and pronounce it a “radar dish”. 🙂
Man! I wanna be a little kid again! Things were so much fun and simpler back then.
Why is everything covered in plastic, now? It doesn’t make any sense. I don’t remember getting seriously hurt on any of the playground equipment. I remember someone pushed me off the jungle gym once, and I had the wind knocked out of me, but that’s about it. Did some kid pinch their fingers on the swing chain or something, and their parents sued? I don’t know about you, but when I was playing hard, my hands would get really sweaty… You’d think that’d make the swing chains harder to hold onto, what with all that slippery plastic covering everything. Kids are pussies these days, man! 😉
Ooh, I had the “wind knocked out of me” on the jungle gym too! It was in, like, second grade. I was trying to do the infamous “cherry drop” trick, where you hang upside down by your legs, start swinging, and – without using your legs – flip yourself onto the ground in a standing position. My friend could do it and I was trying to learn. Instead I dropped about two feet right onto my head. I was okay, but I seriously couldn’t breathe or speak for a full minute. The playground monitor must’ve thought I killed myself. I have a blurry memory of the principal, who she musta called, bodily carrying me and running me to the nurse’s office. (You know, that wasn’t a very smart thing to do if I had, like, broken my neck. Silly man.) But I was fine.
Have a saddle mate donkey for sale.
E-mail if intrested.
Normally I don’t like such blatant comment spam on my site, but it’s a Saddle Mate! I’ll let it stand. You’re lucky.