Things that Made Playing More Fun
- Paved playgrounds, for skinning knees and breaking in new pants
- High, unenclosed slides, for express trips to the pavement
- Wooden swing seats and seesaws, for getting splinters in your butt
- Massive metal merry-go-rounds, for breaking bones
- Uncushioned handlebars, for knocking teeth out
- Bike “paths” with rocks, roots, and ruts, for busting hubs and bending spokes
- Nonexistent helmets, kneepads, and harnesses, for enjoying the full impact of a fall
- Swords made of sticks instead of plastic, for poking eyes out
- Packs of free-roaming dogs, for wind-sprint training
- Open drainage systems, for wading, filling water balloons, and conducting nature projects
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I was always partial to the rusting monkey bars, for building up your tetanus immunity.