Ridiculous, frivolous lawsuits aside, litigation does, to some extent help keep our society safer. But at what cost? Sure children’s playground equipment of the seventies was dangerous, but that’s what made it so darn fun. What better feeling was there than sticking your head on the edge of the spinning merry-go-round and having a friend push it as fast as possible? And was there anyone cooler than the clique that hung out on the top of the monkey bars?
Divine Caroline takes us back to these devices of yore, with a delightful look at the inspired death traps children of the seventies and eighties once called playgrounds. Kids today may be safer, but their soft-rubber padded gym sets are no where near as fun as what we had.
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I was born in the late 80s, but I still remember things like that. There was a campground that we’d go to often, and the main playground had the usual swingset and slide, but it also had what we called a “UFO”, where you could climb up a ladder into this little pod area. It was sort of like the Hamburglar picture from the link. We would try to see how many kids we could get up in there. I’m not sure why, but it was torn down.
posted by Jenny on 10-28-2009 at 11:18 am
How funny. I, too am an 80s kid (est: 1980, to be precise) and I remember the Hamburglar thing. As I was looking at the pictures with all the metal bars I wondered if they’d show it and sure enough! Man, that was fun. Climb up the middle part and just, kind of, hang out in the mouth part. So much fun. I wish they still had those.
posted by Michelle on 10-28-2009 at 11:53 am
Manoman, that second “rocket slide” set was in Belleville, IL, and my brother and I would beg my mother to take us there whenever we visited my grandfather in town.
posted by Zach on 10-28-2009 at 12:41 pm
Michelle, the Hamburglar thing is actually “Big Mac” the policeman for McDonalds playland. It’s mouth would be about 5 feet up. We used to see how many kids we could stuff into that thing. There were arms & legs sticking out everywhere on that thing. We also would try to climb up into the mouth from the outside, or try to climb up to the top from the outside.
posted by Brian on 10-28-2009 at 12:46 pm
I’m 25 and I remember all of this stuff. I miss the rocket and the crazy ass slides! My childhood playground was full of amazing, dangerous steel playground equipment. It was all on sand and there were red ants and sand bees! We used to catch them. Now its all plastic set on foam. I feel like even the swings will be taken out eventually. The swings!
posted by ac on 10-28-2009 at 1:26 pm
Back when I was a kid in the 70′s we didn’t have those “hamburger things” or wacky slides. We had these metal straight sliding boards that during the summer would heat up to a point where they would rival the surface of the sun. God help you if you sat on them with shorts. It was a definite trick to slide down FAST before you would get third degree burns ! And if you were lucky, there was nice soft chopped up gravel to land on at the bottom !
posted by Scott on 10-28-2009 at 3:32 pm
We had one of those barrels at a park in Mobridge, SD, in the late 70′s. Even then there were cautionary rumours of the kid who broke his collarbone trying to ride the outside of the thing (rumours likely started by safety-conscious parents).
I loved that barrel, but not as much as the “tornado slide” in the same park. I swear the old slide was at least 15 feet tall, something you never see anymore.
posted by dagnabbit on 10-28-2009 at 4:44 pm
It was even more fun to use waxed paper to go even faster as you slid down those really hot metal slides.
posted by JBA on 10-28-2009 at 5:04 pm
My school had the dome mokeybars. Man we would pile kids on one side to try to tip it over. Hmmmm That may be why they took it away.
posted by A on 10-28-2009 at 5:43 pm
I was in Douglas, WY and they still have a park with the barrell and the merry-go-round. I’m 35 and I had to try my luck on both. They’re still a lot of fun.
posted by Dave on 10-28-2009 at 5:44 pm
My elementary school has a new version of the Hamburglar thing but its just shaped like a UFO. One of the parks in town still has some of the huge play structures made out of just bars.
posted by Anne on 10-28-2009 at 6:06 pm
There is a house in West Chicago, IL that has the hamburglar thing and a few other McDonalds themed play sets. Takes me back to my childhood every time I pass it.
posted by Mrs. Coffee on 10-28-2009 at 6:26 pm
When did the _floss start farming out their stories? Half of the articles aren’t are only links to other stories.
posted by Ethan on 10-28-2009 at 6:39 pm
Those of us born in the eighties were fortunate enough to reap what previous generations of playground designers sewed. So, forget those metal, spring “see-saws”, as a child my playground had serious see-saws: just a first-class lever, eight feet of plank, gravity and faith in your teetering partner!
So this: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Seesaw-aa.jpg
posted by Lynnie on 10-28-2009 at 6:50 pm
The plastic or wooden seated swings are for the most part gone now unfortunately. Now, I’ve only seen the “strap” style ones and even THOSE have seatbelts ! What the hell people !?! Jumping off the swing when you get it up to 15 feet in the air is what swings are DESIGNED FOR !
posted by Scott on 10-28-2009 at 8:05 pm
I seem to remember hearing about a study conducted a few years ago that found that modern, “safer” playground equipment has actually lead to more injuries because children have to take more risks to make them fun. Does this study ring a bell to anyone?
If that’s true, I can relate; our school’s equipment was so sharp and high off the ground we were scared to use it incorrectly!
posted by John on 10-28-2009 at 8:38 pm
I think the “hamburglar thing” is actually named Mayor McCheese? Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
I remember when McDonald’s used to have this big purple cage in the shape of Grimace…you’d get inside it and shake the heck out of it. inevitably, someone would fall and get tossed around like a ragdoll. They also used to have a big, 4-person sit-n-spin in the shape of a cheeseburger. You could get that thing spinning so fast that it would be tough to hang on any more.
I miss my childhood…
posted by Pete on 10-28-2009 at 8:39 pm
It’s no wonder kids are so much fatter now than they used to be. Yeah, you got hurt occasionally on the old equipment, but that was because it was fun enough that you were actually outside playing and using it. Modern playgrounds are so dull that I can’t imagine any kids bigger than pre-school age having any fun at all on them. Kids aren’t going to get hurt sitting on the couch watching tv or playing video games, but they’re going to miss out on the fun of playing outside.
posted by Melissa on 10-28-2009 at 8:55 pm
Pete: Nope, that *is* Officer Big Mac (note the lack of purple suit and sash, and presence of policeman’s uniform).
posted by Random on 10-28-2009 at 10:15 pm
Okay. I feel like an idiot but, Where are the pictures?
posted by Sunshine Gal on 10-28-2009 at 10:15 pm
sunshine, i’m wondering the same thing
posted by shirleyfeeney on 10-29-2009 at 1:27 am
found it…click on divine sunshine’s name
posted by shirleyfeeney on 10-29-2009 at 1:28 am
I think I played on equipment just like those during the 70′s and 80′s! I even did the barrel roller I think somewhere in Nebraska City. Those dome and rocket climbers were on playgrounds everywhere that I grew up. Even some schools had the old tire climbers. Those were so fun!I loved the slides but I think of how hot they would get in the summer – we’d only play on them after sunset.
If you’re ever in town, there are a pair of giant metal slides in the Old Market in Omaha at the Gene Leahy Mall. Adults and kids would take wax paper and card board that had a slick side and slide down. Whee!
posted by Sarah on 10-29-2009 at 5:38 am
The rocket slide! We had one of those in Rapid City, SD, and I’ve been trying to find a picture of it for years. I LOVED that slide although it took years for me to get brave enough to ride it. The metal gangway seemed so steep when I was little, and a lot of the corrugation had worn away so it was very slick, and hard to climb in flip-flops. Every kid in the park would be clanging up and down … it got really loud … but once you made it up to the top, that curved red slide was so much fun! It was a rite of passage to climb all the way to the top of the rocket.
One question for fellow rocket slide fans. I seem to remember that the wavy white slide was halfway up — kind of the wimp’s way out if you were too scared to climb higher — and the red slide was the one that started at the far end of the rocket. This photo shows the opposite. Am I crazy, or did the Rapid City park have a different model?
posted by Karen In Japan on 10-30-2009 at 4:16 am
I remember that barrel, is it bad I would run in it and pretend I was a hamster?
posted by kristen on 7-25-2011 at 2:08 pm