We did those shitty fundraising sales the entire 6 years I was in elementary school with the promise of more playground equipment and finally when I was in 5th grade they put up a single slide. In hindsight someone had to be skimming off the top there.
They always are … they’re a scam and should be illegal IMO
Fresh out? Still in!!
Kids these days can still enjoy the finer things in life.
Still better than the plastic slides.
My family invested in a jungle-gym when I was a kid. We were lucky. The slide was wood with a thin wax coating. It lasted about one year in that region, baking in one season, swelling in another, freezing and thawing in the other two, until it became a splinter distributor and we never used it again.
For the metal slides, however, lying on a skateboard + metal slide = somehow never broke a bone.
I have a very fond memory of my grandmother in the late 60’s and early 1970’s taking us to the playground near her house and they had one of these metal slides. We always took a roll of wax paper to tear off a piece and sit on the first few times down. After that, you could fly down this thing. Great times!!! I miss her.
So, you were not only protecting yourself from the heat, but also waxing the slide? Holy shit dude. That’s genius… and if your slides were anything close to the 7-8 ft death traps near where I lived, then it was also completely fucking insane. I never even met your grandma and now I miss her too, she must have been hell on wheels in her youth.
Wow, I never really thought about the protection from the heat thing. I just thought it was so we could slide faster!
…And right into rocks/gravel…
We had asphalt. Monkey bars on it, too. For first graders. So many broken arms.
Ooh, damn that’s rough!
I think we had some bars over asphalt/concrete/cement (I dunno, it was a big solid surface that was also the parking lot, the kickball diamond, the wiffle ball field, and where we had all of our field and track days) but I only ever fell off the ones over the rocks. I do remember friends with broken teeth or busted noses from that, tho.
Can’t beat sandpaper textured concrete.
At least it’s not slippery when wet.
Huh, interesting reading these comments. In my area it was wood chips. Splinters everywhere, jammed between toenails and fingernails, wood chips to the face, throwing wood chips in each others eyes…
It was not many years later that school playground was renovated to have the softer outdoor foam play floor
I think wood chips were added later (after I was out of that school) “for safety” and then rubber mulch was an even later upgrade.
And when did something soft go in the playground area? Waaaay later, the school got actual grass in the playground - instead of playground equipment. 🙄 Building was closed within a few years of that happening.
While clothing slides at exhilarating speed over a metal slider, sticky sweaty skin will instantly and firmly grip to it. You do NOT want to initiate thigh skin contact in the middle of a descent.
It burns it burns it burns it burns it burns Chaaarliiiiiiiieeeeee!
Cover that butthole, averyminya!
Hey, I just went down one of these last week!
It was still on a half day preheat, so it wasn’t that hot.
