A few years ago, they built a new grade school. Of all the things that I was sad would be lost, the Big Slide was at the top of the list. But then I got here today and what did I see in the new school's playground? THE BIG SLIDE! They disassembled it and moved it to the new school and gave it a nice fresh coat of paint. Here it is in its restored glory.
The community was really behind this from what I hear. I found out they even made Big Slide t-shirts to raise money for moving and restoring it. I found out too late, but they still sell them. A friend offered to buy one and send it to me.I talked to a guy at the school today. He said the slide was over 80 years old. During the winter we would pile snow at the bottom and let ourselves slide off the end and plop onto the snow and ice at the bottom.
It's great to see this small victory over lawyers and the insurance company that let this slide continue to bring joy to new generations of kids!
That's great, hale-bopp. Nice slide, too. It's wonderful that people pulled together for it. I didn't think about insurance and/or lawyers until you mentioned them, but as soon as you did, I wondered how the people overcame them.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't have wavy ones when I was a kid. The one at my park, Lakeview, wasn't big. I think Douglas Park had a tall one. I remember scalding my thighs more than once on a sunny summer day. Under the right conditions, though, and with a little sand to ease friction, you could fly off the end of that thing so fast that you could not stay on your feet.
I wonder if the kids know about Waxtex Wax paper. We lived across from the park on Hamilton Ave just two blocks north of Durand Aver. Mom would give us a couple of sheet ripped off the roll and after a few runs while sitting on the wax paper, that slide would speed right up!
ReplyDeleteDang, Huck, I never heard of that. What a great idea. Did it melt off when the slide got hot?
ReplyDeleteI grew up not far from the North Beach lake bank, always great for sledding in the winter. But in the fall, after the grass went dormant and turned yellow/brown, we would slide down the hill on pieces of cardboard, usually cut out from boxes from local merchants. Sometimes the butcher had waxed boxes and those flew down the hill.
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ReplyDeleteNice story Boppster! I remember back a couple years ago there was an article in the JT about, I think it was one of the day care centers, they had to dig up all the dirt around their slides and toys and put a bunch of sand and wood chips down and it had to be something like 5 inches thick so the kiddies would get hurt if they fell! Wow how times have changed.
ReplyDeleteWax paper, hell yes, you could ‘scream’ down a slide sitting on a piece of that, we use to use it all the time!
That's my delete...just learning how to spell....gezzzz
A few years ago I brought my friends kids over to my park at Island Park.. I remember it being a fun park they had those horses you could swing back and forth.. a pretty good sized slide, some other bars and things to climb on.. I thought they would have a blast over there playing.. when I got there I was so disappointed to see that they had taken away everything cool (except the normal swings) and replaced it by a lame little plastic thing.. so not fun.. broke my heart...
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