When the recess bell would ring in 1967, thus would begin a mad dash by students weary of classwork out of the classroom and towards the most desirable piece of playground equipment: the swing set.
There are still many school swing sets like that which continues to exist at Nichols School in Miami, Oklahoma that many, many generations of school kids have enjoyed. When the one that I played on was erected in the 50's, it was made of strong tubular steel set deeply into the ground in concrete. It has withstood tornadoes, floods, and steady use by thousands of children over more than fifty years.
However, what might bring it down one day is no force of nature, but rather the fear of liability.
In today's litigious, politically correct, it-takes-a-village society, playground equipment that has the slightest chance of causing injury to a poor, innocent child is an abhorrent thing. Yellow-Pages-advertising lawyers are hungry to get their slimy hands on any case involving a kid who splits a lip falling off of a jungle gym. What a sad situation compared to when we Boomers were kids.
We Boomers tend to accept what we can't change. Make no mistake, we knew no limits on what we could change when we participated in sit-ins, campus protests, and marches. But nowadays, we know that some things, like death and taxes, are certainties, and we deal with it.
Maybe one reason we do so is that we grew up on those playgrounds where you could take as many dares as you wished, but if you screwed up, the price was pain, and a possible chewing-out by our parents for not being more careful.
Our swing set looked exactly like the one pictured. Four sets of swings, and a big, tall slide on one end. Of course, one swing was too high, one too low. That left only two that we all fought over. But that was okay, because one wouldn't swing for the full twenty minutes of recess. No, you would get up to a suitable altitude, then launch yourself. Your feet might get as high as six feet off of the ground before you plummeted to the slight cushion of the sand. Then it was the next guy's turn.
Yes, a kid or two broke an ankle while I was in elementary school. And each time, their parents would pick him up from the nurse's station, take him to the doctor, and make certain the child had learned a lesson about just how daring he could be without becoming foolish.
The slide, too, presented adventure tempered by the possibility of danger. At the top of the slide, you were perhaps seven feet off of the ground. The teacher forbade more than one kid at the top at a time, but that didn't stop us from pushing the limits when she wasn't looking. And yes, once in a while a kid would fall off and split his head open. That kid was much more careful the next time.
Today, of course, any pain that a child might come into contact with is taboo. In fact, any situation that might cause harm to ANYONE is to be avoided if at all possible. Hence the square feet of warning labels that adorn new ladders. Did you know that it's possible to fall off of a ladder and hurt yourself? How horrible! We must warn the masses!
The result, I fear, is one generation after another of kids who grow up into adults who feel entitled. Sure, the world owes me a living. Of course, I have a right to party. Too much credit card debt? I'm entitled to blow it off by going bankrupt. Not getting along with that girl I just married? Divorce time!
Perhaps the lessons we learned by experiencing the dire consequences of misusing potentially dangerous playground equipment would have well served the succeeding generations that were village-raised.
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Comments (10)
Do you remember us flying off the grade school swings in Pea Ridge during lunch after we moved up to 7th and 8th grade.......haha....It was a wonder we didn't break our necks.......
Posted by Doug Fletcher | January 28, 2008 3:43 PM
Posted on January 28, 2008 15:43
Kids still get rowdy at recess. I have to tell kids not to jump off the swings,or you'll break your leg,daily.But my recess moto is no blood no foul.But then I grew up on the playgrounds in Joplin in the 1960's.
Posted by Steve | January 29, 2008 1:39 AM
Posted on January 29, 2008 01:39
If a kid broke an ankle or "split his head open" in 1967, maybe he could see a doctor or had insurance. Today, millions can't see a doctor and can't afford health insurance. We build playground equipment better now because we know better. It evolves, just like most every kind of equipment. (Do you think cars are better, less polluting, and safer than those from 1967??)Some kids fell on concrete and suffered brain injury. That can last a lifetime. Try taking care of a brain injured person sometime, and perhaps you would see how difficult it can be. Anyone who cares about kids would want to prevent that if he could. Ask any family member of a person who fell on concrete and had a serious head injury (yes, it happens to kids every day)if telling him to be more careful next time is all that's needed. Making any kind of equipment for kids safer over time is common sense. Most of us get smarter as time goes by, and we learn how to keep everyone a little safer by changing what we used to use and used to do. Bike helmets are a great example. Save a ton of head injuries every year. Maybe you don't have any kids, or if you do, they've never gotten seriously hurt. How fortunate for you.
Posted by Carolyn L. Rosenblatt, RN, Attorney | January 29, 2008 11:21 PM
Posted on January 29, 2008 23:21
Whoa..........chill out............Go hug a tree or something.......!!!!!!!!!
Posted by Doug | January 30, 2008 12:57 PM
Posted on January 30, 2008 12:57
Doug,
Thanks. My feelings exactly.
Posted by steven | January 30, 2008 8:37 PM
Posted on January 30, 2008 20:37
There you go a lawyer AND a RN at the same time. Bring back the days of when the telephone books had beautyful photos on the front and back covers. Not the adds for lawyers and doctors trying to make a fast buck by someones kid having a good time in the playground.
Posted by Joe A | February 11, 2008 6:54 PM
Posted on February 11, 2008 18:54
I agree with with Ron here. Making things "safer" is great but I think the lessons learned by some pain and injuries are beneficial and too important to do without. To the lady who mentions brain injuries, yes its a tragedy but, bad things happen to good people all the time. We protected little Johnny from cracking his head open while riding his bike but now he develops cancer and spends weeks and months in treatment and chemo, and then dies anyway. Death is a fact of life. I'd much rather die enjoying myself than in a hospital bed sick as a dog, at any age. Like any animal population the herd needs to be kept in check. Yes that means humans too, like it or not. My son broke his arm on the school playground in second grade, I congratulated him, the next day he went to school a hero. But he is also a lot more careful when climbing ladders, and he isn't so quick to whine about something minor having experienced a broken bone. I hate all the new laws that make me so safe. Safety equipment should be a choice I make to use not a requirement from the government.
Posted by Amy Chevalier | February 12, 2008 3:55 PM
Posted on February 12, 2008 15:55
I'm in love with this site!
In second grade (1968), I, being what used to be called a "tomboy" and having to do everything the boys did, climbed up on top of the chin-up bars. When it was time to go in from recess, I put my hands between my knees, intending to swing down, and lost my grip, banging my forehead on the sidewalk below. Pandemonium ensued. A neighbor brought me home, as my dad was at work with our only car, and I stayed home the next day; going back to school on Monday with a huge purple knot on my forehead and a new reputation as a daredevil. No lawsuits. In fact, the only repercussion after that came at the end of the year when my mother chided me for "embarassing her" by shinnying up the basketball pole at the class picnic to sit behind the goal. "See, that's how Cindy got hurt; doing things that the boys do," said one of the teachers.
Fast-forward 40 years, and little Cindy has a very nice corner office from many years of not being afraid to "do what the boys do."
I feel very sorry for today's bubble-wrapped kids. Who knows what they could accomplish in the future if allowed to take chances and fall today?
Posted by Cynthia Bernard | June 2, 2008 6:10 PM
Posted on June 2, 2008 18:10
Obviously, It is a good idea to implement safety into any practice. I think the issue is the overwhelming paranoia that seems to be infecting people to the point to where our individual freedoms are inhibited. It is the same issue whether its on the play ground or in the hospital bed, or when being charged with negligence.
"The result, I fear, is one generation after another of kids who grow up into adults who feel entitled."
Where do we want to set our bars for socialism?
In the 80s, we had a magnificent playground at my church that was built through none other than the blood and sweat of the members.
The community made them take it all down due to safety concerns. Apparently, it was built too high.
Well today, I can buy my children a fancy playground set that is even taller from any playground retailer.
If there is a concern for safety, it is usually the height from which falls are most likely to occur that is problematic.
Anyway, I just wanted to say...
Posted by Andrew | July 12, 2009 8:06 PM
Posted on July 12, 2009 20:06
Wow! Ron that was super. A lot of good posts here at this article. To me, perhaps the best thing about our collective experience as boomers has been our wide contrast between what we grew up in compared to what we have become. And I don't want to sound self-righteous in saying we took a wrong course and exclude myself. We all sort of got taken along without even realizing it. It has happened in every great empire of man.
But since the changes we experienced were so fast and dramatic, so radical, we have had better opportunity to recognize it as we see the telephone poles go by us like a picket fence (thanks Commander Cody) as we travel that highway of life.
Now is the time to ask, my fellow boomers and any willing to listen to us old farts, are we to blame for much of what happened to us? Or were we just asleep? Is it too late to change anything? What should we do? At the very least, I would say, we ought to give it thought and come to some conclusions. If we can figure out where we went wrong or if we went wrong and why, then maybe we can make appropriate changes rather than shoot blindly in the dark.
but to sum it all up, I believe it is critical that we accept less of poor silly excuses in lawsuits and change laws to forbid silly lawsuits and accept responsibility and not blame everyone else when we do something stupid and maybe even suffer tremendous harm for it. The blame game is a most dangerous one to play. for it encourages all to look for any solution as long as it does not involve them and nearly everything they do actually involved them directly most of the time.
I love the 60s because we did this without knowing we were doing it. It just came natural till malevolent forces and sources decided it would be much better if they had an excuse to dictate to us in the name of protecting us. And if they have the exclusive right to protect us and not we, ourselves, then we truly have become slaves and we are no longer our own property but we have become the property of USA gov.
AS I recall, we sent 650,000 good men to their early graves in the name of freedom and abolition of slavery. Have we now lost that battle without so much as a shot fired?
I leave the answer to that to those who might chance to read this. And I leave this with just one more question.
What good are memories if they do not stimulate learning?
Posted by Scott Irv | July 13, 2009 10:07 PM
Posted on July 13, 2009 22:07