… metal slides?
“Doug – you’re such a hard a$$”. How many times have I heard that? I think I can tell you why – I grew up playing on metal slides. I can think of three in my hometown – one at the public school, one at the town park, and one at the drive-in theatre.
If you look around at all the parks in town these days, there are a variety of slides. Twisted, straight, bumps, and other variations. The common thread that runs throughout though are that they’re all made of a plastic composition. Kids have it so good today.
Growing up, we sure didn’t have such variety. In our world, you’d climb up and slide down. A great source of fun. At least by our standards.
When we’d get bored, we’d think of variations to get even more enjoyment.
- walking up the slide
- dumping a bucket of sand from the top and then sliding down to pick it up and wonder why we were itchy in certain body places
- hang by our knees over the cross braces
- run at the slide at full speed and hit the ladder mid-stride
Despite all this, my strongest memory was how HOT the slide got on a sunny summer day. I did have one friend who had one in his backyard and we’d take a garden hose and run water from the top to cool it off. I should have patented the concept. We had a water slide before water slides became cool.
Do you have any sliding memories?
- do you remember a metal slide from your childhood? Where was it?
- today’s slides end up landing in a rubber synthetic surface. What did slides of yesteryear land you in?
- have you ever walked up a slide?
- other than going up and sliding down, what other games did you play on a slide?
- can you identify a metal slide still in operation?
As with any Sunday, please share your thoughts in the comments below.
And, check this out. With the great amalgamation of townships and towns, our township did have an old-school playground that was taken down. Yet, they did leave a metal slide in the middle of the field though. I honestly can say I’ve never seen anyone use it though! It just stands there all alone waiting.
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https://dougpete.wordpress.com
If you read it anywhere else, it’s not the original.
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Doug, as I started to read your post, all I could think of was, “My goodness did those slides get hot!” It looks like you agreed. 🙂
Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
Aviva
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When my kids were little there was still a mix of metal and plastic slides around the parks we visited. I remember the plastic ones creating static during the slide down and their hair would fluff up. I think the plastic ones lent themselves to more graffiti possibilities.
That is a cool photo of a lonely metal slide 🙂
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