You'd get your older cousins to bring the thing up to orbital speeds when you were having a birthday party in the park. At least a couple times a year, some would get a broken arm on that thing, and once a generation a kid would end up underneath.
I remember getting spun up to warp speed and one kid slipped and flew off. Not normally a problem but he happened to get flung onto his bike that was parked there. He did not ride off into the sunset.
Around here they started getting rid of them in the 80's. The story I was told is that kids would play "dropsies" where you'd drop a shoe under the platen and then try to grab it on the next round. Some kids would throw it far under and the kid reaching for it could get his head caught under and it could break their neck.
That's the gruesomest story I heard but I found many, many other ways to injure myself on these things.
Pfft! Grass?! Try sand that's 3000° from the American Southwest sun, and full of broken Budweisers. Also, I'm not seeing any old, disintegrating railroad ties anywhere. How are you supposed to get your daily tar and lead content?
"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" needs to die out because that's not how trauma works. You never recover full strength in a broken bone, never become fully cured of PTSD.
But you also learn how to handle pain be it physical or mental. It gives you a new perspective that helps you to handle difficult situations in the future. There's obviously a point where you're just fucked, but up til then there's more of a trade off.
People tend to make that claim when they are adding pain to your life, as is the case with punishment. Life is painful enough to teach this lesson without anyone adding more.
I've not heard it used that way. In my experience it's after something bad happens to someone or they're going through some shit in an effort to reassure them that whatever is going on will pass and they'll at least gain some mental strength from it. Maybe it doesn't help at the time but looking back on stuff that's happened to me it is a true statement.
not from uk but when I grew up we had this net spaceship thing you could climb into like a clubhouse. Made completely out of metal. In a place with both severe summers and winters. I for the life of me do not know how we did not end up with news stories about some kid or adult cooking or freezing or sticking to the walls in there.
I smoked my groin so hard on one of these while trying to jump on while it was ferociously spinning. It sucked at the time but the character it formed has stayed with me for life.
So that slide in the background, I remember the one at my local park being about five stories high. My mother insists I am wrong but I know what I remember. That slide in the background does look like it would fit the bill though.
Our big thing was daring each other to get the swings in the playground to go so high you'd flip right over the stand. You had to stand up on the seat and pump hard to get high enough. I always chickened out, but some of the kids did it. The problem was the chains were then wrapped around the stand, making it harder to swing.
And yes, the surface under the swing was hard asphalt.
As a kid, going over the bar on the swings was a huge fucking deal!
I have vague recollections of some book or show where a kid went over the bar and as a result his body turned inside out. (Not sure if that was an actual thing or some fever dream I had!)
And the cartoon Recess had an episode where a kid went over the bar and disappeared, and all the kids thought he travelled to another dimension or became a god or something. (In reality he just jumped off the swing and hopped in his mom's car, but nobody saw him because of glare from the sun)
Hmm, I'm beginning to think I was scammed by stinky boys who claimed they did it but actually just somehow managed to throw the empty seat over the bar. Because the chain was definitely wrapped around it.
Similar in Scotland still, except flush with the ground in a rubberised floor, this could be worse? Ground lever must increase potential for high speeds?
I remember these monsters, and much bigger than this photo....................
American Old: "Back in my day, we went outdoors and did things that built our bodies and minds. Why don't you kids do that?"
American Young: "Cause you defunded all the public parks, demolished the outdoors to build parking lots, and sent cops to harass anyone caught outside the house without their parents."
American Old: "Shut up, you woke antifa little shit. Nobody wants to hear you talk."
I once got one of these up to speed (solo) at the park near my home, jumped on, and held onto the middle with my legs, while my head spun around past the outer platform. Then, some dickhead bully hit me in the back of the head with a rock and I had to make my way home while bleeding... Only, there was literally no one there. I checked multiple times, and there was nowhere to hide or run to. That fucking merry-go-round dislodged a rock from under it, then the centrifugal force flung it right at my head! And that's one of the milder ways you could hurt yourself on these things...
Ah, the furious carrousel. I remember once how my legs were flying almost parallel to the ground while, with my arms, I was trying to hold to this structure. Never really liked it, but it was a question of honor.
Sarcasm is only one side; after 505 joke how older gen was cooler i got the question - maybe older gen's fault that new gen grew not so cool? Definitely there's no answer, but, at least, i got the question.
52 Comments
TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 171d
You'd get your older cousins to bring the thing up to orbital speeds when you were having a birthday party in the park. At least a couple times a year, some would get a broken arm on that thing, and once a generation a kid would end up underneath.
tomenzgg@midwest.social · 5 pts · 170d
My brother swears he fell underneath, one time we were playing. Thankfully, he was towards the edge and he was small (at the time).
redsand@infosec.pub · 3 pts · 170d
Teenagers with dirtbikes. Such glorious stupidity was something to behold.
Peppycito@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 170d
I remember getting spun up to warp speed and one kid slipped and flew off. Not normally a problem but he happened to get flung onto his bike that was parked there. He did not ride off into the sunset.
LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 14 pts · 170d
Which generation is that, though? Like basically everybody experienced this as a kid.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 169d
No. Only my generation. The Best Generation.
Peppycito@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 170d
Around here they started getting rid of them in the 80's. The story I was told is that kids would play "dropsies" where you'd drop a shoe under the platen and then try to grab it on the next round. Some kids would throw it far under and the kid reaching for it could get his head caught under and it could break their neck.
That's the gruesomest story I heard but I found many, many other ways to injure myself on these things.
LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 170d
Wow, that's messed up, most what we did is just throw people off it or throw drinks at em when the thing was up to relativistic speeds.
GeeDubHayduke@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 12 pts · 170d
Pfft! Grass?! Try sand that's 3000° from the American Southwest sun, and full of broken Budweisers. Also, I'm not seeing any old, disintegrating railroad ties anywhere. How are you supposed to get your daily tar and lead content?
whelk@retrolemmy.com · 5 pts · 170d
Man I miss those railroad ties and old rubber tires
GeeDubHayduke@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 169d
Kids these days didn't know the flavors they're missing!
tetris11@feddit.uk · 3 pts · 170d
That's what the child-sized cigarettes were for
blackn1ght@feddit.uk · 9 pts · 171d
That isn't rust on the roundabout, it's dried blood.
ruuster13@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 171d
"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" needs to die out because that's not how trauma works. You never recover full strength in a broken bone, never become fully cured of PTSD.
lightnsfw@reddthat.com · 0 pts · 170d
But you also learn how to handle pain be it physical or mental. It gives you a new perspective that helps you to handle difficult situations in the future. There's obviously a point where you're just fucked, but up til then there's more of a trade off.
ruuster13@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 170d
People tend to make that claim when they are adding pain to your life, as is the case with punishment. Life is painful enough to teach this lesson without anyone adding more.
lightnsfw@reddthat.com · 1 pts · 169d
I've not heard it used that way. In my experience it's after something bad happens to someone or they're going through some shit in an effort to reassure them that whatever is going on will pass and they'll at least gain some mental strength from it. Maybe it doesn't help at the time but looking back on stuff that's happened to me it is a true statement.
P1k1e@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 170d
We cared not for the danger, only that we'd reach the center at max speed
myrrh@ttrpg.network · 4 pts · 169d
HubertManne@piefed.social · 4 pts · 170d
not from uk but when I grew up we had this net spaceship thing you could climb into like a clubhouse. Made completely out of metal. In a place with both severe summers and winters. I for the life of me do not know how we did not end up with news stories about some kid or adult cooking or freezing or sticking to the walls in there.
glibg@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 169d
I smoked my groin so hard on one of these while trying to jump on while it was ferociously spinning. It sucked at the time but the character it formed has stayed with me for life.
Delilah@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 169d
Is that character sterile?
glibg@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 169d
Thankfully no! I may someday produce offspring who will also misjudge playground physics.
Digestive_Biscuit@feddit.uk · 4 pts · 169d
It's on grass. It needs to be on concrete slabs which are uneven and sticking up.
melsaskca@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 169d
Then you've never had Clacker Balls. At least half of my friends received concussions from those things.
echodot@feddit.uk · 3 pts · 169d
So that slide in the background, I remember the one at my local park being about five stories high. My mother insists I am wrong but I know what I remember. That slide in the background does look like it would fit the bill though.
Flashheart@piefed.dk · 3 pts · 171d
And who haven't seen that one kid who tried to get home while balancing vomit /no vomit "decision"...
My god it was awful, but it was a builder of character 👍
MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 169d
Our big thing was daring each other to get the swings in the playground to go so high you'd flip right over the stand. You had to stand up on the seat and pump hard to get high enough. I always chickened out, but some of the kids did it. The problem was the chains were then wrapped around the stand, making it harder to swing.
And yes, the surface under the swing was hard asphalt.
dmention7@midwest.social · 4 pts · 169d
As a kid, going over the bar on the swings was a huge fucking deal!
I have vague recollections of some book or show where a kid went over the bar and as a result his body turned inside out. (Not sure if that was an actual thing or some fever dream I had!)
And the cartoon Recess had an episode where a kid went over the bar and disappeared, and all the kids thought he travelled to another dimension or became a god or something. (In reality he just jumped off the swing and hopped in his mom's car, but nobody saw him because of glare from the sun)
Rooster326@programming.dev · 4 pts · 169d
Mythbusters did this. Its not possible - you have to replace the chain with solid bars.
But I think this is all entire human race thing. Idk anyone who has never tried this, or seen someone who has. No generational thing about it.
MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 168d
Hmm, I'm beginning to think I was scammed by stinky boys who claimed they did it but actually just somehow managed to throw the empty seat over the bar. Because the chain was definitely wrapped around it.
NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 169d
And then Purple Aki was there and everyone hi-fived.
Janx@piefed.social · 1 pts · 169d
That didn't happen.
MattBlackAlien@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 171d
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkCEOGoQkJk
Simon_M@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 168d
Similar in Scotland still, except flush with the ground in a rubberised floor, this could be worse? Ground lever must increase potential for high speeds? I remember these monsters, and much bigger than this photo....................
Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 167d
Witches Hat! We had one like this, but quite a bit bigger, in my town. All the danger of a swing and a roundabout combined. Mounted on concrete.
ulterno@programming.dev · 2 pts · 169d
I had seen that in one of my neighbourhoods.
It had already been broken by the previous generations.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 169d
American Old: "Back in my day, we went outdoors and did things that built our bodies and minds. Why don't you kids do that?"
American Young: "Cause you defunded all the public parks, demolished the outdoors to build parking lots, and sent cops to harass anyone caught outside the house without their parents."
American Old: "Shut up, you woke antifa little shit. Nobody wants to hear you talk."
Digit@lemmy.wtf · 1 pts · 169d
Wait. What? They don't have those any more?
tal@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 171d
Is the slide in the background AI-generated or Photoshopped or something or.... is it actually buckled right in the middle?
lime@feddit.nu · 6 pts · 171d
thin metal, long slide, heavy use. most of them looked like that after a while.
jaschen306@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 169d
They still have these in Taiwan. Plenty of hurt kids.
Janx@piefed.social · 1 pts · 169d
I once got one of these up to speed (solo) at the park near my home, jumped on, and held onto the middle with my legs, while my head spun around past the outer platform. Then, some dickhead bully hit me in the back of the head with a rock and I had to make my way home while bleeding... Only, there was literally no one there. I checked multiple times, and there was nowhere to hide or run to. That fucking merry-go-round dislodged a rock from under it, then the centrifugal force flung it right at my head! And that's one of the milder ways you could hurt yourself on these things...
selokichtli@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 168d
Ah, the furious carrousel. I remember once how my legs were flying almost parallel to the ground while, with my arms, I was trying to hold to this structure. Never really liked it, but it was a question of honor.
lightnsfw@reddthat.com · 1 pts · 170d
The weak were ground to mush underneath that thing.
mcSlibinas@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 171d
So our kids being dumber because we grew with this? 🤔 Or your point is different?
LucidNightmare@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 170d
It's just a joke is all.
mcSlibinas@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 170d
Mine too 😎
LucidNightmare@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 169d
So, the internet does not convey sarcasm or jokes very well, especially in text form.
I know you probably don’t care, and that’s good, but that’s why I assume you got the downvotes.
A simple /s is easy enough to type out to avoid a downvote or 5. ;p
mcSlibinas@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 169d
Sarcasm is only one side; after 505 joke how older gen was cooler i got the question - maybe older gen's fault that new gen grew not so cool? Definitely there's no answer, but, at least, i got the question.
Me, i got question, not younger gen/s
chuckleslord@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 170d
Boo! Pointless nostalgia bait is lame
YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today · 0 pts · 170d
Is it tetanus? Cause it looks like tetanus.
Cort@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 170d
No tetanus causes lockjaw, they run their mouths too much for that to be the case.