Skool Daze (cont.)

The hot lunch kids usually ate inside the cafeteria (less chance of losing spoons and forks) and the sack /cold lunch kids usually ate outside at long picnic tables under a carport type covering. Unless the weather was lousy, then we all ate inside. Most kids wanted to bring their own lunches so they could be outside, and they usually ate as fast as they could so they could spend most of their lunch hour on the playground.

We had so much fun, playing on the swings, that had heavy metal poles, framed together, with a pole welded between them at the top, and that pole had long thick metal chains hanging from it, that connected to a thick leather seat that conformed to your bottom when you sat on it. There were always lines of kids taking turns swinging as high as the swings would go. I still love swinging to this day, tho, it’s harder and harder now to find the good, high, heavy duty, swing sets.

Or the metal jungle gym, *with just dirt under them* which had metal poles welded together that you could climb, forming a shape that peaked at the top. And most had a pole right down the middle of the jungle gym that you could slide down when you finally reached the very high and highly coveted top perch.

The long metal bars you could grab hold of and hang from, do chin ups on, and the gymnastic twirl around, with you’re knee bent around the pole, your hands on each side of your body holding the pole, and with a sweater or jacket placed under your knee, for padding so it didn’t hurt so much, but most importantly kept the pole slippery, so you could twirl very fast, till your arms got tired, causing you to let go and fall off. And the large metal rings hanging across a pole that you could swing hand over hand on, I still remember the large blisters on my hands, ouch!...

The very high metal sliding board with metal steps, and how we poured sand on the slide (when no one was looking) causing it to be even more slippery, and we could slide down faster. And the ever popular teeter-totter made with metal poles and wooden seats, that inevitable someone would jump off their seat/end without warning, causing the kid sitting on the other seat/end, to hit the ground with a hard thump.

And who can forget the flat, round, metal spinning *merry-go round*, with welded metal bars that crisscrossed on top, a bunch of kids would load up in the center and hold on to the bars (some daredevils would stand, balancing, on top of the bars) and other kids would stand on the ground, hold on to the bars near the outside of the circle, pushing the metal bar, and running (in the rut, caused by many years of feet) on the ground, around and around, so that it would spin faster, and then hopping on as quickly as they could, and hanging on tight, so they wouldn’t slide off while it was spinning, and hit the hard ground. Which many did!

There was the hopscotch, using a stone to mark the next place we had to skip over while hopping on one foot then two feet, then one foot, and there was also, four square, we played with the large red rubber bouncy ball that made that wonderful hollow sound when bounced on the black tarred playground. Also, the tether balls, and kick ball, and the large stretchy band, used for what we called Chinese jump roping, and the long heavy braided rope that had a kid holding each knotted end, turning it around and around, so that others could see how long they could jump without touching the rope.

We ran, played hard, shouted, and chased each other and took full advantage of the (2) 15 minute recesses and (1) hour long lunch break we had everyday. And at the end of the day, I remember well, that quiet excited, tenseness in the air, as eyes quickly glanced from a math/English/history book, to check the clock again and again, waiting for the sound of the last ring of the bell (sound of freedom), ending the school sessions for the day.

And the funny thing is, in my grade school, nobody got killed on the playground, doing what we did. No body got seriously injured or crippled even tho we didn't use helmets, or knee and elbow pads. We all got through the lower grades, healthy, strong and most of the time happy!

CU