Children's playgrounds in the Western have all been made "safer" during and since my childhood. In Oz, you can only find "see-saws" with huge springs on them - not a good ol' plank on a simple fulcrum to be seen anywhere. Tragic IMHO. have people no respect for tradition? ;-P
And well, when I was a kid, some playgrounds used to have this thing that my brothers and I called a "roundabout" (before the driving kind of roundabout became popular - yes, that long ago!). It was like this big wooden wheel (on it's side) - maybe 2 metres diameter (but it's hard to recollect dimensions accurately when you yourself were so much smaller at the time). There were metal handles that you could hold on to - all run around holding them to spin the wheel or one person could stand stationary and push each handle as it came around while all the other (usually smaller) kids just rode the ride. Kinda like getting pushed on a swing but so much cooler. One of my brothers used to push the roundabout for the smaller kids - and it made him like the pied piper. Within 10 mins there were usually up to 10 or more little kids crammed on the thing while he pushed it.
But "roundabouts" were amongst the playground equipment that was "too dangerous" and I haven't seen one in a playground in Australia for at least 10 years.
So my question is (yes, I do have a question!) did American playgrounds ever have anything like that? If so what did you call them? And were they still around in the late 80s to early 90s?
(Coz yeah, I've got a vague idea for a "Wee!chester fic" that I'd like to use it. Just a vague idea, but not knowing and not knowing who to ask has been kinda bugging me.)
OT: questions about Americanisms of a different sort - okay, not so much about YOUR fic ;-P
And well, when I was a kid, some playgrounds used to have this thing that my brothers and I called a "roundabout" (before the driving kind of roundabout became popular - yes, that long ago!). It was like this big wooden wheel (on it's side) - maybe 2 metres diameter (but it's hard to recollect dimensions accurately when you yourself were so much smaller at the time). There were metal handles that you could hold on to - all run around holding them to spin the wheel or one person could stand stationary and push each handle as it came around while all the other (usually smaller) kids just rode the ride. Kinda like getting pushed on a swing but so much cooler. One of my brothers used to push the roundabout for the smaller kids - and it made him like the pied piper. Within 10 mins there were usually up to 10 or more little kids crammed on the thing while he pushed it.
But "roundabouts" were amongst the playground equipment that was "too dangerous" and I haven't seen one in a playground in Australia for at least 10 years.
So my question is (yes, I do have a question!) did American playgrounds ever have anything like that? If so what did you call them? And were they still around in the late 80s to early 90s?
(Coz yeah, I've got a vague idea for a "Wee!chester fic" that I'd like to use it. Just a vague idea, but not knowing and not knowing who to ask has been kinda bugging me.)