When I was a kid, both the local park and elementary school playgrounds had climbable constructs made out of widely-spaced wooden logs, with many sections partially hollowed out. That meant you'd have bees, hornets and wasps nesting in there frequently. Add to that the risk of splinters.
To make matters even more interesting, these things were tall. Probably 20ft at the very top. If you fell, you'd either fall from that height into the stones and probably be fine, or you'd get unlucky and break your fall on protruding wood from the equipment on the way down. There were no rules governing how you could or couldn't play on the stuff, just common sense.
Of course, it was fairly easy to see how something like a bee sting, splinter or just plain bad luck could have resulted in a kid losing their balance, falling from a decent height, and ending up paralyzed (or worse) in the process. I knew of no serious incidents, but in the mid 90s all of that equipment was replaced with un-fun plastic stuff that was maybe a third of the height and impossible to fall from. I can only imagine how the earlier equipment would be received today.
Though, I spent my youth playing unsupervised in the Appalachian woods, climbing trees, getting stung by numerous types of bugs, falling out of trees, stepping over snakes, touching poison ivy, swimming in rivers, getting splinters, accidently cutting myself with knives, machetes, axes, & hatchets and I had practically no "bad" injuries (no broken bones or hospital trips)... a few close calls though.
I'm lucky to not be from the US, and so growing up was pretty free for all, within the limits of common sense and your mom yelling at you for not being careful when you got hurt. The funnest part of it all was using the playground like it wasn't meant to, like climbing up the slides, laying on top of the monkey bars or standing up, balancing on, and jumping off the seesaw. I also had a bike; you needed something with a good suspension cause we'd try to make them jump on makeshift ramps. Or we'd take them down the steepest slopes/stairs we could find to challenge ourselves. We'd even ride them down the river-side through rocks and plants; park it by shore and jump in the river.
Of course I fell on my face and got hurt; everyone did. I still have some of the scars on my knees; boy it was definitely worth though.
It strikes me that in the US on top of underestimating the common sense of kids adults also tend to underestimate their resilience (then again, sometimes I see the kinds of TV shows kids here might be exposed to, and I too wonder if their common sense is being undermined /:). When you're young you can take hits, a scratched knee, torn shirt, wet/muddy shoes, they're all temporary and not a huge deal. What really matters is the game. Sadly, in adult-space in the US it seems to be the risk of lawsuits that matters most.
Everything here got replaced with super safe stuff in the late 90s/early 2000s, but recently the new new stuff going in seems to be getting more dangerous again!
A park just went in nearby and it's got a bridge of swinging pendulum things that you could easily fall off, all suspended about 2m off the ground. There's bark underneath but still, you could easily break your arm falling off it and it's prety much designed to tip you off. 15 years ago I feel like they'd be 30cm off the ground max.
Probably the lowest in the fun/danger ratio were the teeter-totters. Playing on them the way they were meant to be played on was no fun, so almost immediately people started doing dangerous things, like jumping off to watch the other person fall to the ground. Also, giant chunks of swinging metal....imagine absent-mindedly walking too close to one of those.
Parents don't want their kids to die so they place some reasonable restrictions on activities in order to reduce risk. After all, they only have 1 or 2 kids so they can't afford to lose one. Historically families had many more children and it was perfectly normal to lose 1 or 2 (usually to infectious disease).
With school bureaucrats the story is different. They place unhealthily stringent limits on risk. They can't afford to lose a single child even though they have 200,000 of them. Because they might get sued or have their careers damaged.
[+] [-] rl3|9 years ago|reply
To make matters even more interesting, these things were tall. Probably 20ft at the very top. If you fell, you'd either fall from that height into the stones and probably be fine, or you'd get unlucky and break your fall on protruding wood from the equipment on the way down. There were no rules governing how you could or couldn't play on the stuff, just common sense.
Of course, it was fairly easy to see how something like a bee sting, splinter or just plain bad luck could have resulted in a kid losing their balance, falling from a decent height, and ending up paralyzed (or worse) in the process. I knew of no serious incidents, but in the mid 90s all of that equipment was replaced with un-fun plastic stuff that was maybe a third of the height and impossible to fall from. I can only imagine how the earlier equipment would be received today.
[+] [-] bcook|9 years ago|reply
Though, I spent my youth playing unsupervised in the Appalachian woods, climbing trees, getting stung by numerous types of bugs, falling out of trees, stepping over snakes, touching poison ivy, swimming in rivers, getting splinters, accidently cutting myself with knives, machetes, axes, & hatchets and I had practically no "bad" injuries (no broken bones or hospital trips)... a few close calls though.
[+] [-] aylmao|9 years ago|reply
Of course I fell on my face and got hurt; everyone did. I still have some of the scars on my knees; boy it was definitely worth though.
It strikes me that in the US on top of underestimating the common sense of kids adults also tend to underestimate their resilience (then again, sometimes I see the kinds of TV shows kids here might be exposed to, and I too wonder if their common sense is being undermined /:). When you're young you can take hits, a scratched knee, torn shirt, wet/muddy shoes, they're all temporary and not a huge deal. What really matters is the game. Sadly, in adult-space in the US it seems to be the risk of lawsuits that matters most.
[+] [-] amorphid|9 years ago|reply
Coming soon to a playground near you, replacing all climbable trees with small bushes.
[+] [-] tarboreus|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Nition|9 years ago|reply
A park just went in nearby and it's got a bridge of swinging pendulum things that you could easily fall off, all suspended about 2m off the ground. There's bark underneath but still, you could easily break your arm falling off it and it's prety much designed to tip you off. 15 years ago I feel like they'd be 30cm off the ground max.
[+] [-] ktRolster|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wersplectior|9 years ago|reply
With school bureaucrats the story is different. They place unhealthily stringent limits on risk. They can't afford to lose a single child even though they have 200,000 of them. Because they might get sued or have their careers damaged.
[+] [-] typetypetype|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|9 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] chrismealy|9 years ago|reply