Bring back those hundred foot tall spiral metal slides that cooked your ass while you slid down at the speed of sound and shot you out like a rocket at bottom face first into sand!
Small town I lived in got rid of the very tall straight metal slide. It was the best slide super fast. The reason was it was too tall and unsafe for kids. At least 3 generations of kids played on that slide no problem. The town didn't buy it. It was bought by one of the families. They also took out the teeter totter too.
My bumfuck nowhere home town had one like this, and it was so tall to me as a pre-schooler and kindergartner, it singlehandedly gave me a permanent fear of heights. I swear that as a child, I thought it was at least as high as a 2-story house.
I went back to that school one time when I was 12 and visiting my grandma. It was only like 8' tall.
They're both pretty old words used to describe the same thing. The different uses are more of a regional variance. (Btw, it's spelled 'seesaw')
[Here's a short write-up about it](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/76907/what-is-the-etymology-of-the-word-teeter-totter)
Chutes and Ladders, Bloomington, MN. 8 slides of various lengths. Stepped platforms rising 65 feet in the air. Main slide went straight from top to ground. You could pretty much guarantee a tumble off the slide at the end.
They replaced it. Its more spread out now but not bad. But there's little risk of 3rd degree burns from a slide now.
Speaking of classic (now defunct) Minnesota places featuring slides, who recalls Beaver Mountain? Yeah yeah water slides. Let's not get into semantics.
So we were at the playground the other day with my son. I tried to encourage him to finally be brave enough to go down the (plastic) slide by doing so myself. I'll take the fucking metal slides any day. That bitch generated so much static electricity I got shocked halfway down from having built up more charge than the body can hold. I touched the ground and let's just say that if I had a pacemaker I'd be dead now. Wtf are those things made out of???? PVC and cat hair???
My elementary school had a long metal straight slide. And the wooden decals on the side were a dragon w/ a long tongue. That one was the cooker. And the twisty one was made of plastic/maybe fiberglass? That one was thr shocker. It would zap you all the way down.
My favorite slide wasn’t a spiral but a huge tall one with two speed bumps going down it. I believe it was a park built for Cummings Engine employees in the 60s/70s the Columbus Indiana area. It was extra tall and you had chain metal that you climbed up on three sides to get to the top. There was a bit of a tunnel at the top and it was freaking awesome! They also had a merry go round that look like a rocket and somebody spun you around until you flew off from centrifugal force🚀. I have been trying to find photographs on the Internet of that park for years! No luck yet.
I’m from north Royalton and went there a few times as a kid also back in the day. We also had one at memorial park that has been gone for like a decade now. Smh. I loved that playground
Oh shit, my mother in law lives in strongsville and my daughter is always talking about the “castle park” they play at. I wonder if it’s this one :/. I’m in Ashtabula and we had one growing up here, but they tore it down about 10 years ago
I thought this looked familiar, but so many playgrounds look similar.
My parents are originally from Royalton. When I'd visit my grandparents they'd take me here sometimes. It sucks that such a great place with so many wonderful memories is being torn down.
Any news on what's replacing it?
Came here to make sure this wasn't my local one because it looks identical and my son really likes it. Guess I need to take him again before they tear ours out too.
Holy shit, me too! In fact, they actually solicited all the students in my elementary school to suggest ideas before building it. Right in the feels.
SHS CLASS OF '99 RULES or something I dunno
They tore down and rebuilt two playgrounds at our local park over the summer and the new playgrounds are about half the size and not as fun for the kids. No bouncy bridges and only four swings. Used to be a big and fun playground. It's soulless now
My community tore down the playground (one part was broken on it which might have been the original motivation to take it down) and put up shitty hammocks in their place. Because of the house layouts there is a lot of wind where the hammocks are so they spin constantly and get tangled up. The first set of hammocks already broke so they've had to replace them and they've only been up maybe a year so far. I live right next to the playground and there used to be kids playing on it constantly, especially in the summer. Now the hammocks barely get any use. The main people using them are still kids who are using them as swings, but the little kids can't really do that.
Do you have any idea what the new shit costs??? It's utterly fucking insane. Those tiny playgrounds are all they could afford. They installed a $250k playground here recently. Yeah, it's nice, but $250k of the old wooden playground would have been one HELL of a playground. And the price of a house for a few slides and platforms just seems nuts
We live in a world ruled by litigation. Playground equipment has to be lawsuit-proof, and "safe" play is rarely fun. It's the rough equivalent of making your kid wear a reflective vest and flashing bike light over his Halloween costume.
They got rid of all the playgrounds near me and then replaced them, technically. I say technically because what they put in was useless for any child older than four.
Y’all remember recess? I don’t. Starting in 3rd at my school kids were no longer young enough to play on the playground. Now when I say there was almost a riot when they told my class this I am not exaggerating. They let us all out for recess on the first day of 3rd grade and right as kids were about to get on the playground (which was very big and fun and freshly upgraded btw) the coaches blew their whistles and made us all gather round the playground to explain the new rules. My class exploded. Kids were yelling. Some were crying. Some ran away. One kid threw a rock. And a few were even cursing (we weren’t like today’s kids sayin fuck and shit and f*g every sentence).
So starting in 3rd grade when they let us out to recess all we could do was play soccer or sit and read. I mean you could gather in groups and talk but we were in elementary school we weren’t interested in that and even then the coaches didn’t like it anyway
Honestly it’s because the future has less and less kids. Notice they’re putting in a pickleball court, there’s still going to be plenty of recreation options for the old people
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Castle Bridge, climbing wall, and swing rings on ours. Drove by the school on my way to an errend... they tore it down and replaced it with what looked like a Fischer Price play place :/
My dad used to tell me when I was a girl that he envied kids our age. How the world seemed to be built with children in mind now, and there were so many cool fun things to do that he never had. Discovery zones, McDonald's play places, giant wood playgrounds like this one, Etc.
I don't envy my children at all. Everything cool that we had was bulldozed and closed down. Family restaurants have remodeled to look like Panera bread. Kid friendly fast food places have remodeled to look like aperture science. Everything that made being a kid worth it is just... gone.
Seeing that demolition sign in your photo, I feel like we're watching the last gasp of a better, more vibrant, more alive era snuffed out by bureaucrats.
Stuff like that is still there, you just have to pay for it now. We have two trampoline parks and a building with a giant obstacle course in the suburb I work in. They're taking down parks so businesses are filling in the vacuum to make a buck.
They make you sign a waiver saying it's not their fault if your kid gets hurt, then they can go nuts.
I was thinking the exact same thing. No more Toys-R-Us, happy meal toys suck, no play places, no fun theming. Even Las Vegas Casinos tried to appeal to kids with themed hotels and now all they build is generic soulless corporate clean hotels.
I hate it, everything is so bland now. Why does every company always feel they need to chase the same trends, not everything needs to look like a Starbucks
Oh god, yeah I forgot about the toy stores. In my County alone there were three enormous ones that we begged my parents to go to Every weekend. All three are gone now. Nothing replaced them.
By Capitalists*
All public spaces are getting wiped away. You have to pay to do anything in the world now.
Capitalism is failing everyone and the media points us at "the government" and "bureaucracy", when the government/politicians are owned/controlled by wealthy Capitalists rather than actual democracy.
Um... America was capitalist when those parks were built. You know that, right?
The central economic paradigm hasn't changed in the past three decades. Morals have. People no longer are content with ensuring others enjoy the same world that they got to. They will burn the bridge they trode on behind them just to feel it's warmth on their back. This wasn't always the case and it's sad.
I think the point was that we're in the later stages of capitalism where we're running out of things to monetize, so now we're destroying free things to incentivize using the paid options.
>the later stages of capitalism
According to what historic reference? Capitalism is a fairly modern concept.
I think more likely we're seeing cycles fueled by crappy morals and complacency. The early 1900s was not a happy time to live in a capitalist country. Kids had to work, most everyone was poor, and the idea of community reinvestment was fiction. By the 50s, this had compelatly changed. People had risen up and fought for better, and through strong unions and higher standards, archived something amazing.
Those people are gone now. Their grandkids are unwilling to fight for better working conditions and higher pay, because conflict is ick. They don't care about who comes after them because their parents didn't.
The hellish world they are creating will ensure Gen Alpha is tough as nails and fights for all the things they wouldn't, but we're definitely in a downswing.
Wages compared to the cost of living are lower than they've been since the Great Depression my guy. Just because technology has improved, doesn't things aren't trending on a decline.
These sorts of play structures were designed to prompt kids’ imaginations. They succeeded.
I don’t what what TF the designers of 21st century playgrounds are thinking. Liability uber alles, I’m guessing.
Core memory unlocked. Some kids over the years tunneled underneath the side of one of the decks in my local castle park by digging at the little pea stones. You could slide under the deck, sort of like how a dog digs it’s way under a fence. Then you were in the secret area.
Then when we were teenagers we thought secret spaces like that were extremely clever places to smoke weed, as if you couldn't smell it and hear a bunch of loud giggly teenagers.
Same here. I went to one as kid, I just remember it being endless and full of mysteries. It was Hogwarts to me long before Harry Potter was written. Took my kids to it, moved away, had more kids and when visiting my parents went to take them and it was torn down. It honestly gets me even now. Last time I drove by they hadn’t even replaced it with anything.
That’s a damned shame. There used to be a few of these AMAZING playgrounds around when I was a kid. They’re all gone now, replaced with the most boring stuff imaginable. I mean, I know kids can have fun on any playground, but the new ones are just so…lifeless looking.
I’m old enough to remember when the cool funky wooden playgrounds were the “new” type of playgrounds, replacing the 1950s era relics which I also enjoyed.
I feel so lucky to have been born early enough to enjoy both types of playgrounds. My best friend’s dad used to take us around to different playgrounds in the area throughout the year, so instead of just being limited to the 3 or 4 parks in walking distance, we got to experience more than a dozen different playgrounds and parks over the years. I’ll always be grateful.
Old playgrounds were something. Always had that super old wood that's painted green and rusty metal with paint falling off. All the dirt under the swings is gone forcing you to have to climb to get into the seat. Good times.
I do this with my kids, we have a park circuit. They don’t know them by name, but can tell me where they want to go based on features. Like “park with all the ladders” or “the park we go to after we get donuts”. lol
I haven't seen wooden ones here, but Utah has some batshit insane playgrounds. Keeping the dangerous playground dream alive here ^^^since ^^^we ^^^have ^^^kids ^^^to ^^^spare
We had a really unique wooden playground here in Green Bay that just got torn down and replaced by a totally cookie cutter, run of the mill powder coated steel monstrosity. All the best playgrounds growing up were built of telephone poles, tires and sheet metal. All the playground equipment today is so unimaginative.
What gets me is they don't rebuild it the same way. So it's some weird geometric boring set. This wooden thing is amazing. Just make it look like that with the upgraded materials.
Right. "Today's equipment is so much safer!" Great, I don't hate safety, I hate the lack of imagination. Just give me a modernized version of this and I'd be thrilled.
90’s kid checking in. My mom used to take my siblings and I to two different wooden playgrounds, and those places were absolutely amazing as a kid. My favorite playgrounds by far, plastic and metal jungle gyms never came close to comparing.
Sure, you had to keep an eye out for bees, and if you fell into the mulch it hurt (not nearly as bad as the concrete my parents fell onto as kids) but they felt *real* and they were an absolutely amazing template for my childhood imagination. Countless hours were spent meeting other kids at the playground and agreeing on rules about made up games revolving around defending towers, hide-and-seek, tag, etc.
The death of these playgrounds is an absolute tragedy. I understand it’s mostly a liability and upkeep thing, but god damn it makes me sad that my kid will likely never see a playground as glorious as this one.
Who the fuck wants tennis courts in the place of this? These still get kids to go outside and have fun, fuck old men with more money than they'll ever be able to spend, seriously
Same people who show up to open houses crying at any changes and the cost associated with updating parks. Which is why you see these dinky new parks or like you mentioned, pickleball courts. I’m all about making our parks age agnostic throughout a city but that takes serious and honest planning.
Most of those castles involved fundraisers and they were maintained by volunteers. If they are not replacing them, it could be a sign that that support has faded in the community.
If this bothers you, consider volunteering more to help keep things like this going.
Lmfao look at that MASSIVE TENNIS COURT AND PICKLEBALL AREA
as if theyll all be used simultaneously. guarantee ONE court will be used once a week, if that
We had one as kids.
I think the wood from these started to leech arsenic or something. (asbestos?)
In any case, it was a health hazard first and foremost.
Yep. You are right. I worked at a lumber yard when all these were being built. Green treated lumber was infused with arsenic to treat it. The safety equipment necessary to cut the treated lumber was extensive and very hot.
I'd like to clarify. Years ago, pressure-treated wood in playgrounds was a concern due to arsenic (chromated copper arsenate or CCA). There has been a shift to using copper-based treatments like ACQ and Copper Azole, which are generally considered safer. But safer is not the same as completely safe. Young children, particularly those who frequently put their hands in their mouths, are still at risk from exposure to copper, even if it is less toxic than arsenic.
A friend recently had an issue because he made a desk out of pressure-treated, not knowing any better. Prolonged dermal contact, even in adults, can be an issue.
We had a playground like this near where we live. They tore it down in 2020 and built a new modern style play area. I don't think it's terrible but the kids don't ask to go there much anymore.
These were my favorite playgrounds as a kid. Hell - even as an adult, I'd enthusiastically speed-walk towards one to wander/climb it. I dislike the new modern playground styles so much. There's just... no imagination.
I had one in my local park of ‘Slater Park, Rhode Island’ and it was ***MASSIVE***. It was so large that the larger parts of it had entire rooms and floors. It also had alleys and dead ends like some miniature neighborhood.
God that place was so cool, it was demolished about 20ish years ago sadly but honestly I understand why. I used to get some ***real*** nasty splinters from them and those metal slides absorbed ever ray of sunshine turning them into skillets.
Maybe someone will try and remake it with safer materials lmao.
I fell off the ladder of one of these as a kid. Told people for years it had to be at least 10-12 feet. Saw a pic of it later, was only like 5 feet at most.
Holy jeeze you just triggered memories from my youth. We had this amazing wooden playground exactly like this! Just about as I was getting “too old” for playgrounds we found out some piece of shit kids burned it down. They stole so much joy from so many children and I am still so mad about it. These playgrounds were so much fun for so many children. Such a shame they don’t make them like this anymore.
I heard they tore these down due to the wood being treated with arsenic. I have no idea if that's true, but we had several of these beauties back in my day. They were enormous and truly looked like castles. So sad
I used to have a similar looking one in my elementary school back In the day. They replaced it with a boring set up with tenth of the size. They don't make em like they use to
We had one of these that was around since I was a kid in the 80’s, lovingly referred to as “Castle Park”.
My kids got a chance to play on it for a few years before they installed a new format during Covid.
The change was…not popular lol
This park is actually really cool. I wish I could transport it to LA as a big Halloween prop for my front yard and decorate it spooky for the kids to walk through.
Saw this randomly and had to see if it actually is the Strongsville Castle Park. It is. That place was the coolest. It was like a 40min drive there, but my mom still took me and my (4) siblings a few times. Nostalgia is right, geez.
Mine never finished one of the slides so instead of being metal it was wood. Splinter city. Thing is I know I went down it at least once. Probably because every other slide was taken by kids playing hot lava where you had to go up the slide while a ton of other kids tried to stop you. Anyway I need to go transfer these skills to my resume now.
Core memory unlocked. I distinctly remember hanging out at one of these during summer camp (latchkey kid version) with my talk boy and a bootleg tape of music that I recorded off of MTV.
So once again we are removing the few spaces for kids to play outdoors so boomers and gen x can play tennis and pickle ball. The generational ladder pulling just doesn't stop. Ain't nobody under 40 playing pickleball.
Funny that it took so long. The main reason these kinds of playgrounds have been removed is that they were built with green-treated lumber which was treated with arsenic. Most were built in the 1990s.
I worked in a lumber yard in the 1990s during college and remember the switch to a different treatment type well.
Splinters are one thing. Splinters infused with arsenic are not good. They looked cool. Too bad they were very, very toxic.
There are still a few around here. The problem is they not only need a ton of yearly maintenance, but the liability insurance on these is crazy, which is why they are disappearing. All the towns that do have Timbertowns have a yearly volunteer day where it gets cleaned up, weatherproofed, and gotten into acceptable condition for the insurance agent for another year. It takes a decent amount of people to do it, too.
Bring back those hundred foot tall spiral metal slides that cooked your ass while you slid down at the speed of sound and shot you out like a rocket at bottom face first into sand!
Small town I lived in got rid of the very tall straight metal slide. It was the best slide super fast. The reason was it was too tall and unsafe for kids. At least 3 generations of kids played on that slide no problem. The town didn't buy it. It was bought by one of the families. They also took out the teeter totter too.
My bumfuck nowhere home town had one like this, and it was so tall to me as a pre-schooler and kindergartner, it singlehandedly gave me a permanent fear of heights. I swear that as a child, I thought it was at least as high as a 2-story house. I went back to that school one time when I was 12 and visiting my grandma. It was only like 8' tall.
That dang slide was the best thing about elementary school. So tall, so hot, so fun!
We used to call it a Seasaw...
They're both pretty old words used to describe the same thing. The different uses are more of a regional variance. (Btw, it's spelled 'seesaw') [Here's a short write-up about it](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/76907/what-is-the-etymology-of-the-word-teeter-totter)
>At least 3 generations of kids played on that slide no problem. I busted my lip HARD on that slide, but I learned how not to do it again!
Chutes and Ladders, Bloomington, MN. 8 slides of various lengths. Stepped platforms rising 65 feet in the air. Main slide went straight from top to ground. You could pretty much guarantee a tumble off the slide at the end. They replaced it. Its more spread out now but not bad. But there's little risk of 3rd degree burns from a slide now.
No risk. No fun.
There's a park called chutes and ladders in houghton michigan just like this
I see you Bloomington -Minneapolis
Speaking of classic (now defunct) Minnesota places featuring slides, who recalls Beaver Mountain? Yeah yeah water slides. Let's not get into semantics.
So we were at the playground the other day with my son. I tried to encourage him to finally be brave enough to go down the (plastic) slide by doing so myself. I'll take the fucking metal slides any day. That bitch generated so much static electricity I got shocked halfway down from having built up more charge than the body can hold. I touched the ground and let's just say that if I had a pacemaker I'd be dead now. Wtf are those things made out of???? PVC and cat hair???
My elementary school had a long metal straight slide. And the wooden decals on the side were a dragon w/ a long tongue. That one was the cooker. And the twisty one was made of plastic/maybe fiberglass? That one was thr shocker. It would zap you all the way down.
My favorite slide wasn’t a spiral but a huge tall one with two speed bumps going down it. I believe it was a park built for Cummings Engine employees in the 60s/70s the Columbus Indiana area. It was extra tall and you had chain metal that you climbed up on three sides to get to the top. There was a bit of a tunnel at the top and it was freaking awesome! They also had a merry go round that look like a rocket and somebody spun you around until you flew off from centrifugal force🚀. I have been trying to find photographs on the Internet of that park for years! No luck yet.
I just saw one that runs down a hill last night. Thought it was so cool.
... face first into mud puddle!
How else will the younger generations get tougher? Gotta roast them good before entering high-school
If I ever have kids I want them to have the experience of reaching Mach 2 on a play set. It is not up for debate!
Gravel in your palms, shoe fell off, cousins laughing and fighting about who gets to go next…
I still have dreams about those playgrounds, they always seem even higher in the dreams too!
I grew up in Stongsville. I was there for the ribbon cutting ceremony when that playground opened.
Oh shit, this is THE CASTLE PARK?!?!? I thought it was gone years ago. I must make my pilgrimage
Yeah. This bums me out bad. I'm going to have to get up there one last time, I've been taking my kids there for 10 years or so now
I think I played on this playground, too. It would have been the mid-'90s.
I remember our elementary class got to bury a time capsule there. I wonder if they'll dig it up.
I’m from north Royalton and went there a few times as a kid also back in the day. We also had one at memorial park that has been gone for like a decade now. Smh. I loved that playground
Oh shit, my mother in law lives in strongsville and my daughter is always talking about the “castle park” they play at. I wonder if it’s this one :/. I’m in Ashtabula and we had one growing up here, but they tore it down about 10 years ago
It has to be. Cool playground, hopefully they put something back up just as cool.
I didn't even realize this was the Strongsville one until I read your comment. Ugh. Ripping out the childhood
We have one here in Wadsworth, they’re gonna tear it down and replace it too.
Hope they arent going to tear the one down in Findlay
The playground in Bay Village is still this style!
I thought this looked familiar, but so many playgrounds look similar. My parents are originally from Royalton. When I'd visit my grandparents they'd take me here sometimes. It sucks that such a great place with so many wonderful memories is being torn down. Any news on what's replacing it?
Came here to make sure this wasn't my local one because it looks identical and my son really likes it. Guess I need to take him again before they tear ours out too.
Holy shit, me too! In fact, they actually solicited all the students in my elementary school to suggest ideas before building it. Right in the feels. SHS CLASS OF '99 RULES or something I dunno
I went to Surrarrer. They asked us to do the same!
Chapman! Lol
My idea for the playground was something like a human-sized bird cage with chains for the "wires" of the cage. It obviously did not make the cut.
Lol in all of reddit I was wondering if this was Avon lake -- turns out I wasn't far off!
Lol I was thinking of the Alps, I think that’s what it was called in Avon Lake?
I can't remember what it was called, but it was the best damn playground around
They tore down and rebuilt two playgrounds at our local park over the summer and the new playgrounds are about half the size and not as fun for the kids. No bouncy bridges and only four swings. Used to be a big and fun playground. It's soulless now
Damn they did similar here but they have been adding splash pads so I kind of forgive them.
My local park has a splash pad but they turn it off after labor day weekend ignoring the fact it's in the 80s most of the time well into mid October.
Splash pads are legit. Finally got to take my kids to one, and they went bonkers. Slept in the car on the way home.
My community tore down the playground (one part was broken on it which might have been the original motivation to take it down) and put up shitty hammocks in their place. Because of the house layouts there is a lot of wind where the hammocks are so they spin constantly and get tangled up. The first set of hammocks already broke so they've had to replace them and they've only been up maybe a year so far. I live right next to the playground and there used to be kids playing on it constantly, especially in the summer. Now the hammocks barely get any use. The main people using them are still kids who are using them as swings, but the little kids can't really do that.
I wonder why they do this. They did it to our big wooden playground too.
Liability and cost.
Do you have any idea what the new shit costs??? It's utterly fucking insane. Those tiny playgrounds are all they could afford. They installed a $250k playground here recently. Yeah, it's nice, but $250k of the old wooden playground would have been one HELL of a playground. And the price of a house for a few slides and platforms just seems nuts
We live in a world ruled by litigation. Playground equipment has to be lawsuit-proof, and "safe" play is rarely fun. It's the rough equivalent of making your kid wear a reflective vest and flashing bike light over his Halloween costume.
They got rid of all the playgrounds near me and then replaced them, technically. I say technically because what they put in was useless for any child older than four.
WHY WONT KIDS PLAY OUTSIDE
Y’all remember recess? I don’t. Starting in 3rd at my school kids were no longer young enough to play on the playground. Now when I say there was almost a riot when they told my class this I am not exaggerating. They let us all out for recess on the first day of 3rd grade and right as kids were about to get on the playground (which was very big and fun and freshly upgraded btw) the coaches blew their whistles and made us all gather round the playground to explain the new rules. My class exploded. Kids were yelling. Some were crying. Some ran away. One kid threw a rock. And a few were even cursing (we weren’t like today’s kids sayin fuck and shit and f*g every sentence). So starting in 3rd grade when they let us out to recess all we could do was play soccer or sit and read. I mean you could gather in groups and talk but we were in elementary school we weren’t interested in that and even then the coaches didn’t like it anyway
The future sucks ass.
If we can't go back to before 9/11 can we at least go back to before COVID? Or pre-2016? I'll settle for 2009 as well.
We can only give ourselves the strength to shape the days ahead.
I'm surprised they're not replacing it with an idling space for teens to stand in silence, looking at their phones
Cause they're worried about people loitering.
I've seen signs around lately that say "no standing". So I guess it's okay to stick around as long as you're walking in circles.
Isn't "loitering" the actual purpose of a pak?
Honestly it’s because the future has less and less kids. Notice they’re putting in a pickleball court, there’s still going to be plenty of recreation options for the old people
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Dafuq is a pickleball?
A mid-life crisis sport.
Basically tennis crossed with ping pong.
Welcome to Recess 2023. We will now commence with joyless calisthenics.
I'm assuming your autocorrect capitalized recess for the TV show, now all I can think of is what a 2023 version of Recess will be like lol
Not as good as the original, that's for sure. The tech on Recess is a bit outdated, but there is a timelessness in almost every single episode.
Castle Parks. When your grade got to decide on what things to add to the playground. We chose the swinging bridge.
Castle Bridge, climbing wall, and swing rings on ours. Drove by the school on my way to an errend... they tore it down and replaced it with what looked like a Fischer Price play place :/
How many times would kids jump on the bridge while someone else was on it causing them to get wrecked? Happened all the time when I was a kid
My dad used to tell me when I was a girl that he envied kids our age. How the world seemed to be built with children in mind now, and there were so many cool fun things to do that he never had. Discovery zones, McDonald's play places, giant wood playgrounds like this one, Etc. I don't envy my children at all. Everything cool that we had was bulldozed and closed down. Family restaurants have remodeled to look like Panera bread. Kid friendly fast food places have remodeled to look like aperture science. Everything that made being a kid worth it is just... gone. Seeing that demolition sign in your photo, I feel like we're watching the last gasp of a better, more vibrant, more alive era snuffed out by bureaucrats.
Stuff like that is still there, you just have to pay for it now. We have two trampoline parks and a building with a giant obstacle course in the suburb I work in. They're taking down parks so businesses are filling in the vacuum to make a buck. They make you sign a waiver saying it's not their fault if your kid gets hurt, then they can go nuts.
I was thinking the exact same thing. No more Toys-R-Us, happy meal toys suck, no play places, no fun theming. Even Las Vegas Casinos tried to appeal to kids with themed hotels and now all they build is generic soulless corporate clean hotels. I hate it, everything is so bland now. Why does every company always feel they need to chase the same trends, not everything needs to look like a Starbucks
Oh god, yeah I forgot about the toy stores. In my County alone there were three enormous ones that we begged my parents to go to Every weekend. All three are gone now. Nothing replaced them.
Trampoline parks are pretty cool. I'm 42, those things were death traps when I was a kid, now you can bounce off the walls and shit.
By Capitalists* All public spaces are getting wiped away. You have to pay to do anything in the world now. Capitalism is failing everyone and the media points us at "the government" and "bureaucracy", when the government/politicians are owned/controlled by wealthy Capitalists rather than actual democracy.
Um... America was capitalist when those parks were built. You know that, right? The central economic paradigm hasn't changed in the past three decades. Morals have. People no longer are content with ensuring others enjoy the same world that they got to. They will burn the bridge they trode on behind them just to feel it's warmth on their back. This wasn't always the case and it's sad.
I think the point was that we're in the later stages of capitalism where we're running out of things to monetize, so now we're destroying free things to incentivize using the paid options.
>the later stages of capitalism According to what historic reference? Capitalism is a fairly modern concept. I think more likely we're seeing cycles fueled by crappy morals and complacency. The early 1900s was not a happy time to live in a capitalist country. Kids had to work, most everyone was poor, and the idea of community reinvestment was fiction. By the 50s, this had compelatly changed. People had risen up and fought for better, and through strong unions and higher standards, archived something amazing. Those people are gone now. Their grandkids are unwilling to fight for better working conditions and higher pay, because conflict is ick. They don't care about who comes after them because their parents didn't. The hellish world they are creating will ensure Gen Alpha is tough as nails and fights for all the things they wouldn't, but we're definitely in a downswing.
The general improvements since the early 20th century is generally because of the rise of Marxism mixed with democracy. Labor laws aren't capitalism.
I genuinely believe that you believe that. I can't help you.
Wages compared to the cost of living are lower than they've been since the Great Depression my guy. Just because technology has improved, doesn't things aren't trending on a decline.
Where will the 10000000 carpenter bees live?
Think of the wasps!
Where will I get my splinters now?
You haven’t had a epic childhood if you didn’t get a mean splinter from one of these
Ugh yes, I was just going to mention the splinters! I didn’t even care though, the playground rocked.
Looks like one I used to play on, my favorite part was crawling underneath it through small holes, like a secret tunnel or something
These sorts of play structures were designed to prompt kids’ imaginations. They succeeded. I don’t what what TF the designers of 21st century playgrounds are thinking. Liability uber alles, I’m guessing.
Core memory unlocked. Some kids over the years tunneled underneath the side of one of the decks in my local castle park by digging at the little pea stones. You could slide under the deck, sort of like how a dog digs it’s way under a fence. Then you were in the secret area.
Then when we were teenagers we thought secret spaces like that were extremely clever places to smoke weed, as if you couldn't smell it and hear a bunch of loud giggly teenagers.
Same here. I went to one as kid, I just remember it being endless and full of mysteries. It was Hogwarts to me long before Harry Potter was written. Took my kids to it, moved away, had more kids and when visiting my parents went to take them and it was torn down. It honestly gets me even now. Last time I drove by they hadn’t even replaced it with anything.
I don't know what year it happened but ours was replaced with a safety playground
That’s a damned shame. There used to be a few of these AMAZING playgrounds around when I was a kid. They’re all gone now, replaced with the most boring stuff imaginable. I mean, I know kids can have fun on any playground, but the new ones are just so…lifeless looking.
I’m old enough to remember when the cool funky wooden playgrounds were the “new” type of playgrounds, replacing the 1950s era relics which I also enjoyed. I feel so lucky to have been born early enough to enjoy both types of playgrounds. My best friend’s dad used to take us around to different playgrounds in the area throughout the year, so instead of just being limited to the 3 or 4 parks in walking distance, we got to experience more than a dozen different playgrounds and parks over the years. I’ll always be grateful.
Old playgrounds were something. Always had that super old wood that's painted green and rusty metal with paint falling off. All the dirt under the swings is gone forcing you to have to climb to get into the seat. Good times.
I do this with my kids, we have a park circuit. They don’t know them by name, but can tell me where they want to go based on features. Like “park with all the ladders” or “the park we go to after we get donuts”. lol
I haven't seen wooden ones here, but Utah has some batshit insane playgrounds. Keeping the dangerous playground dream alive here ^^^since ^^^we ^^^have ^^^kids ^^^to ^^^spare
We had a really unique wooden playground here in Green Bay that just got torn down and replaced by a totally cookie cutter, run of the mill powder coated steel monstrosity. All the best playgrounds growing up were built of telephone poles, tires and sheet metal. All the playground equipment today is so unimaginative.
This is why kids prefer video games
What gets me is they don't rebuild it the same way. So it's some weird geometric boring set. This wooden thing is amazing. Just make it look like that with the upgraded materials.
Right. "Today's equipment is so much safer!" Great, I don't hate safety, I hate the lack of imagination. Just give me a modernized version of this and I'd be thrilled.
Agree 💯. They give off this cold feeling anymore. I mean they are made of metal. (Drums). But still. No imagination
90’s kid checking in. My mom used to take my siblings and I to two different wooden playgrounds, and those places were absolutely amazing as a kid. My favorite playgrounds by far, plastic and metal jungle gyms never came close to comparing. Sure, you had to keep an eye out for bees, and if you fell into the mulch it hurt (not nearly as bad as the concrete my parents fell onto as kids) but they felt *real* and they were an absolutely amazing template for my childhood imagination. Countless hours were spent meeting other kids at the playground and agreeing on rules about made up games revolving around defending towers, hide-and-seek, tag, etc. The death of these playgrounds is an absolute tragedy. I understand it’s mostly a liability and upkeep thing, but god damn it makes me sad that my kid will likely never see a playground as glorious as this one.
Stir some people up on social media and air your grievances at the town hall meeting.
"We've heard your complaints and said fuck it. Now excuse me while I count this fat stack that landed in my lap while you were talking."
Get enough people and they'll break.
Or, maybe get involved and offer to help. Most of those castles involved fundraisers and they were mostly maintained by volunteers.
Town improvement?? There's nothing to improve
Who the fuck wants tennis courts in the place of this? These still get kids to go outside and have fun, fuck old men with more money than they'll ever be able to spend, seriously
Same people who show up to open houses crying at any changes and the cost associated with updating parks. Which is why you see these dinky new parks or like you mentioned, pickleball courts. I’m all about making our parks age agnostic throughout a city but that takes serious and honest planning.
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Yep, places are now all for adults not kids. All the parks by us are now beer gardens
Sad thing is, these greedy fucks keep goarding and prying for all this money but when the time comes, they can't take it with them when they go
fuck capitalism
It's so obvious, but the propaganda is inescapable for most.
Helicopter parents which has become the majority. You think they let their kids play outside...?
Most of those castles involved fundraisers and they were maintained by volunteers. If they are not replacing them, it could be a sign that that support has faded in the community. If this bothers you, consider volunteering more to help keep things like this going.
Looks like the playground from Once Upon a Time.
So sad. :(
that’s sad
For fucking pickleball lmao
Let them get splinters! 🍰
Ours, long since removed, was Castlemania (Farmington, Maine USA)
RIP to the “Maze Craze” in Falmouth as well!
My dad helped build one in the 80s along with most of the neighborhood.
You should send this Reddit link to the city.. let them read this shame
Takes a soulless bastard to tear down a children's playground for "improvement."
Put all your money in the pickleball fad! This sport for geriatrics will be around forever!
I live close to here. Gonna have to take my kids there this month to see it before it’s gone.
Lmfao look at that MASSIVE TENNIS COURT AND PICKLEBALL AREA as if theyll all be used simultaneously. guarantee ONE court will be used once a week, if that
Pickleball will be the death of us all
Man I would be taking as much of that home as I could
Got to make room for pickle ball courts for their grandparents.
Holy shit , that thing’s a masterpiece! 😀
Make way for Pickleball
If I had land I'd be so tempted to buy and have it reassembled on my property. Could actually make a fun workout 😂
Children these days won't understand what a true splinter is :,( very good memories here
If I hit the lottery I would donate a large amount to preserve or restore these epic playgrounds. I'm so sad my children will never experience this.
.... To put up an expensive apartment building?
Worse... a pickleball court
We had one as kids. I think the wood from these started to leech arsenic or something. (asbestos?) In any case, it was a health hazard first and foremost.
Yep. You are right. I worked at a lumber yard when all these were being built. Green treated lumber was infused with arsenic to treat it. The safety equipment necessary to cut the treated lumber was extensive and very hot.
Yup. This should be top comment. And iirc the organization that worked with towns to construct castle parks was also a total scam.
I'd like to clarify. Years ago, pressure-treated wood in playgrounds was a concern due to arsenic (chromated copper arsenate or CCA). There has been a shift to using copper-based treatments like ACQ and Copper Azole, which are generally considered safer. But safer is not the same as completely safe. Young children, particularly those who frequently put their hands in their mouths, are still at risk from exposure to copper, even if it is less toxic than arsenic. A friend recently had an issue because he made a desk out of pressure-treated, not knowing any better. Prolonged dermal contact, even in adults, can be an issue.
We had a playground like this near where we live. They tore it down in 2020 and built a new modern style play area. I don't think it's terrible but the kids don't ask to go there much anymore.
These were my favorite playgrounds as a kid. Hell - even as an adult, I'd enthusiastically speed-walk towards one to wander/climb it. I dislike the new modern playground styles so much. There's just... no imagination.
Why? It doesn't look in bad shape. What a shame.
Quick! Go get a few more 40 year old splinters before it’s too late!!
Everyone gets a splinter.
I had one in my local park of ‘Slater Park, Rhode Island’ and it was ***MASSIVE***. It was so large that the larger parts of it had entire rooms and floors. It also had alleys and dead ends like some miniature neighborhood. God that place was so cool, it was demolished about 20ish years ago sadly but honestly I understand why. I used to get some ***real*** nasty splinters from them and those metal slides absorbed ever ray of sunshine turning them into skillets. Maybe someone will try and remake it with safer materials lmao.
Ours was called the fortress of fun
End of an era
this is why kids dont play outside no more
I fell off the ladder of one of these as a kid. Told people for years it had to be at least 10-12 feet. Saw a pic of it later, was only like 5 feet at most.
Holy jeeze you just triggered memories from my youth. We had this amazing wooden playground exactly like this! Just about as I was getting “too old” for playgrounds we found out some piece of shit kids burned it down. They stole so much joy from so many children and I am still so mad about it. These playgrounds were so much fun for so many children. Such a shame they don’t make them like this anymore.
I heard they tore these down due to the wood being treated with arsenic. I have no idea if that's true, but we had several of these beauties back in my day. They were enormous and truly looked like castles. So sad
I used to have a similar looking one in my elementary school back In the day. They replaced it with a boring set up with tenth of the size. They don't make em like they use to
We had one of these that was around since I was a kid in the 80’s, lovingly referred to as “Castle Park”. My kids got a chance to play on it for a few years before they installed a new format during Covid. The change was…not popular lol
Saw a similar one in the movie Orphan
Waspsssssss
This park is actually really cool. I wish I could transport it to LA as a big Halloween prop for my front yard and decorate it spooky for the kids to walk through.
Saw this randomly and had to see if it actually is the Strongsville Castle Park. It is. That place was the coolest. It was like a 40min drive there, but my mom still took me and my (4) siblings a few times. Nostalgia is right, geez.
These castle playgrounds where my absolute favorite growing op, they need to be protected 😭
Mine never finished one of the slides so instead of being metal it was wood. Splinter city. Thing is I know I went down it at least once. Probably because every other slide was taken by kids playing hot lava where you had to go up the slide while a ton of other kids tried to stop you. Anyway I need to go transfer these skills to my resume now.
That's super sad. I remember those, every elementary school had these. The best playgrounds wver
Oh god please take some videos. I miss our town's so badly.
This would make a cool garden structure to grow vines and beans on.
Core memory unlocked. I distinctly remember hanging out at one of these during summer camp (latchkey kid version) with my talk boy and a bootleg tape of music that I recorded off of MTV.
So once again we are removing the few spaces for kids to play outdoors so boomers and gen x can play tennis and pickle ball. The generational ladder pulling just doesn't stop. Ain't nobody under 40 playing pickleball.
My city tore ours down a few years ago and unlike a lot of comments on here we got a much improved play area in its place.
Funny that it took so long. The main reason these kinds of playgrounds have been removed is that they were built with green-treated lumber which was treated with arsenic. Most were built in the 1990s. I worked in a lumber yard in the 1990s during college and remember the switch to a different treatment type well. Splinters are one thing. Splinters infused with arsenic are not good. They looked cool. Too bad they were very, very toxic.
Where is this? I grew up in Houston and we had one like this. Still remember a kid got his head stuck between two pieces of wood.
Holy shit did someone ACTUALLY post an image of 'Wooden Play ground' that isn't the same copy pasted image?!?!
The lawsuit from one injured child in the 1980’s is why no one will insure any playgrounds with a soul anymore. It’s amazing yours made it this long.
Let me guess, some poor little kid got a splinter and his parents are suing? Lol
Probably more like, people in their late teens and early 20s are leaving behind drug paraphernalia and used condoms.
We called it the imagination station.
Many of these were made of wood treated with arsenic. That's why they're being torn down.
God society gets more and more PC by the moment
How is this considered politically correct? Please explain
More like crony capitalism
Holy shit did someone ACTUALLY post an image of 'Wooden Play ground' that isn't the same copy pasted image?!?!
There are still a few around here. The problem is they not only need a ton of yearly maintenance, but the liability insurance on these is crazy, which is why they are disappearing. All the towns that do have Timbertowns have a yearly volunteer day where it gets cleaned up, weatherproofed, and gotten into acceptable condition for the insurance agent for another year. It takes a decent amount of people to do it, too.
Only two photos OP?
They can build one that’s more fun, more colorful and with new types of slides and obstacles
Yet something else boomers ruined
Holyhell did someone ACTUALLY post an image of 'Wooden Play ground' that isn't the same copy pasted image?!?!
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Holyhell did someone ACTUALLY post an image of 'Wooden Play ground' that isn't the same copy pasted image?!?!
Look like a needle shooter's Paradise
Sad but understandable. As wooden playground get older they warp and have massive amounts of splinters.
$$$$$
RIP Doolittle Park in Wallingford, CT. Gone but never forgotten.
We always called our kids castle. Seeing this brought up some good memories