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Post by my.unquiet.mind on Aug 22, 2014 4:46:17 GMT
We had 3 bars of varying heights, cemented into the ground with nothing but dirt under them. The shortest bar wasn't much fun, mostly because it wasn't even far enough off the ground to do much of anything. The middle bar was the best. It was at a perfect height to encourage all manner of flips and tricks. This was the bar I spent the majority of my time on, flipping and flopping and doing all kinds of crazy things that could've easily gotten me killed. The highest bar was so high that it took quite an effort to mount it. In fact, it usually required trying to convince the girl who was using the middle bar to stop for a minute so you could get up on the middle bar and climb on over to the highest bar. The highest bar was preferable to the shortest bar, but that's not saying much. My ds and dd both attend the same elementary school that I did, and those bars are still there. As someone mentioned earlier in this thread, the only thing the kids are allowed to do on the bars now is to hang. The mom in me is in favor of this rule, especially since my kids are a bit accident-prone. However, the kid in me is appalled that the greatest and most fun of all the playground toys is now the most boring and useless of all playground toys.
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finaledition
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,896
Jun 26, 2014 0:30:34 GMT
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Post by finaledition on Aug 22, 2014 5:24:50 GMT
Fun little trip down memory lane including the blisters, I bet kids now days don't have near the amount of callouses as we do. I remember mastering the death drop and dragged my mom to the playground one weekend to watch and I literally dropped straight down on my head. That hurt! I remember one more bar trick. We'd sit on the bar and take a sweatshirt that would go around the waist, under the bar and then tied around the waist. Then you slide off the bar a bit, rock back and forth and get some momentum to go around the bar with a straight body. Anyone remember that one?
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Post by bwife on Aug 22, 2014 5:27:00 GMT
I remember doing the spinning on the bars and the dropping backwards off of the bars in Elem school. We lived in a small town, I think we had 3 different heights, Maybe only 2. I could spin and drop until I dropped backwards and fell flat and knocked the air out of my self. then that was the end of that! We had blacktop under ours.
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Post by BSnyder on Aug 22, 2014 10:24:16 GMT
I remember doing the spinning on the bars and the dropping backwards off of the bars in Elem school. We lived in a small town, I think we had 3 different heights, Maybe only 2. I could spin and drop until I dropped backwards and fell flat and knocked the air out of my self. then that was the end of that! We had blacktop under ours. Ah, yes! The 70's and 80's monkey bar version of planking.
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Post by lbp on Aug 22, 2014 12:47:54 GMT
Dead mans drop followed by "Skin the cat"
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marimoose
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,282
Jul 22, 2014 2:10:14 GMT
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Post by marimoose on Aug 22, 2014 13:08:53 GMT
We had blacktop under ours and I remember doing all the things that have been mentioned. I think they stopped when I went to jump up on the bar to spin over and came down on my front teeth at almost 10. I chipped a nice "V" in them and got my braces right away haha. We also had the high monkey bars that we would would hang by our knees from. Nothing ever happened on those for me but my brother fell off, pushed off actually, playing king of the mountain and broke his arm. Again as mentioned before, the school nurse waited a couple hours before calling my mom. I was jealous of the cool cast he got to wear. What was I thinking??? I would be freaking out out if I saw kids doing the things we did and I'm not sure why. We all lived through it and had a great time getting those scrapes and bruises.
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Nicole in TX
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,951
Jun 26, 2014 2:00:21 GMT
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Post by Nicole in TX on Aug 22, 2014 14:23:25 GMT
I remember the bars being cemented in concrete with absolutely no padding underneath. Aw, who needs padding?! It is amazing how we all survived to adulthood!
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sharlag
Drama Llama
I like my artsy with a little bit of fartsy.
Posts: 6,580
Location: Kansas
Jun 26, 2014 12:57:48 GMT
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Post by sharlag on Aug 22, 2014 14:44:42 GMT
Do they even have those bars at school anymore? I tried to find a Google image of the twirl maneuver, and most the images were of the climbing jungle gym bars.
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Post by pastlifepea on Aug 22, 2014 14:54:49 GMT
Wow..this is like something I would see in a "You might have been a kid in the 70's or 80's if you did this". I went to a private Christian elementary school and girls were required to wear skirts or dresses. Apparently, it never occurred to me or my mother that I could wear shorts under said dresses/skirts. I just threw caution to the wind and may have unknowingly been flashing panty shots around the playground. Sadly, I don't remember the names we used for any of these ER visit inducing tricks.
It still amazes me the type of playground equipment we had and yet most of us managed to survive to adulthood. I love those big round spin things with about 8 sets of round railings coming out in spokes from the center. We would get those things going so fast and then let go and allow ourselves to be flung off from the force. Good times! One of the parks in our neighborhood in Florida had one and my daughter loved it too but I rarely see them anymore.
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Post by kristalina on Aug 22, 2014 14:57:53 GMT
Not me, but my younger dd used to do that and always scare the crap out of me! When I was young, I saw my friend fall from the monkey bars and break her elbow, her arm just swung back and forth. I never wanted to play on the bars after that!
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Post by Goldynn on Aug 22, 2014 15:12:46 GMT
This cherry drop is similar. Instead of starting in hanging position and gaining momentum while swinging you'd start sitting on the bar and drop down using that momentum to flip. I loved the bars! The first time I cherry dropped off the tall bar, I misjudged and landed flat on my chest knocking the wind out of me for the first time. I learned to wait patiently until my breath came back. This info came in handy a few years later when I was in gymnastics. I did a scary vault at a 5 school meet, misjudged the flip and landed knocking the wind out of me again. You always get 2 vaults, so I was able to nail it the second time and get a ribbon. I was scarily daring as a child, my mother worried constantly. My friends were the same way, was it just the era? Recess was fun back then!
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Post by Goldynn on Aug 22, 2014 15:17:43 GMT
Another quick story: we removed all the swings from my backyard swing set so my friends and I could cherry drop from it. My friend S sat on top with her polyester pants on. As she dropped back her pants near her ankle got caught on the swing hook and she ended up hanging by one leg upside down on the swingset. Me and my friend were just rolling and crying with tears as she slowly slid out of her pants to the ground. Such a funny memory! Ah, the good old days!
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scrappert
Prolific Pea
RefuPea #2956
Posts: 7,960
Location: Milwaukee, WI area
Jul 11, 2014 21:20:09 GMT
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Post by scrappert on Aug 22, 2014 15:27:05 GMT
I loved the bars, too. Can't believe I was so daring. I can't do roller coaters, can't do the rides at the fair. I like my two feet on the ground. But as a kid, I did some really crazy stuff! I am surprised I never hurt myself. My sister on the other hand had to get stiches under her chin from hitting it on the bars falling.
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