Today's playgrounds suck.
Many of the greatest playgrounds I had growing up are now miniature versions of their former glory. Two story winding slides are now three foot tall plastic quarter turns. Ladders turned into short staircases. Chain bridges lost their sway. The gravel became rubber. Roller slides rolled away.
Actually, I'm OK with the last two. Rubber gravel is eco-friendly and awesome, and roller slides are creepy. I had a job in a factory where there were these stick-figure safety signs illustrating the many ways to get mangled. One such picture was pulled straight out of the head of a seven-year-old-me mid-roller-slide. Not pretty.
All of the playgrounds I had growing up worth sharing with a seven-year-old Milo have gone away.
But something I saw recently gave me faith that all is not lost. I just got back from a trip to Indiana, PA to see my wife's sister and family. One playground on the grounds of IUP was both new, safe, and awesome. Cue the evidence:
Exhibit 1: Unbalanced Teeter Totter. Notice the imaginitive and inviting design, but rounded corners and lack of pinch points. Someone could get thrown onto the soft, rubber ground, but that's about the worst-case scenario.
Exhibit 2: The Spinning Bowl. The yellow bit in the bottom left is a bowl, 45 degrees off-level that spins. Notice how you can put dangerously too many people on it and spin yourself silly. The adult's hand is reaching for the ground because he's concerned that he's spun himself too silly. That hand might be all that's standing between him and the Hindenburg.
This thing rocked. I even heard it made Austin (the two year old here) toss his cookies on a previous trip.
Exhibit 3: Rock Climbing Wall. I paid to go to a place that had a bunch of adult sized stuff like this. When I was there, I had to have a spotter, a harness, and a stern talking to about safety. Need I say more?
Exhibit 4: Lookout Spot. Fun, colorful, but totally safe. I can imagine working this little hut into a game, but I can't imagine a way to get hurt. Milo concurs.
In short, this playground has given me hope that we can solve the big problems that Milo's generation is going to face.
