until the school banned it from being played…but we did anyway.

playground equipment. I wish they did. Bummer.

how many kids fell from those jungle gyms and ended up with a broken arm.🫤

are different now.

...just one of those things accepted as part of life.

They may have called it merry-go-round, but I was determined to make it a spin-n-barf machine.

have one at our school, but the local playground had one. I didn't get sick, but went flying off in the gravel. yes, gravel.

Jump rope, especially double Dutch, tether ball, and four square. Wow, That's a trip down memory lane for this baby boomer.

tag game.

except that it involved a good sized rock, a hill and not long after about 10 stitches. After that it was whatever did not involve said hill, rock and stitches.

While we sang songs from the movie Grease, LOL. Good times.

A couple of classmates would sneak down to the creek which was close to the playground. We’d always get in trouble and our teacher would make us sit in the hallway for the rest of the day.

Last edited Fri Mar 6, 2026, 01:50 PM - Edit history (1)

Except, we called it Johnny cross and yes the school banned it.

It was a band of concrete that stuck out from the brick wall about three or four inches. We strove to see who could go the farthest walking on it before falling. At t he playground side it was two feet off the ground. As one went around the building, because the school was on a hill, you could get as high as 15-20 feet off the ground. Me and my brother were the only two to complete a lap.
In middle school we played the game where someone had the ball and everyone else would try and tackle them. Once tackled the ball carrier would huck the ball in the air. Someone would catch it and take off only to be subsequently gang tackled unless the ball was sufficiently flung so one got out of the middle of the crowd upon catching. King of the hill on the snow plowed mounds at end of the parking was great fun as well

what we call "dog pile" around here. Mostly the boys played it. Thank you very much for sharing with us.

It was a pole with six long chains & some kind of metal contraption at the end that kids hung onto. Then we'd run & circle round & round. It was way more fun than it sounds. Ours was over blacktop, like all our equipment was. We had two playing fields; one was gravel & one was grass.

That's just wrong! There should always at least be swings!

playground at the top of the Double Dip, that we used for sledding. Also, there was no Adult Supervision. I remember the boys played more rough games then the girls. But it was, what it was. Sorry to say.

Eventually, as we advanced in the school, we'd take off and walk a few blocks to a candy store that also sold those Japanese made toy guns that shot clay pellets, erasers, etc..
During morning Mass, a kid who's dad was a M.D., would pass out syringes we used to inject our slot car tires with lighter fluid.

Perpetual Guilt. Thinking about it . that was very dangerous.

kickball.

In elementary school I lived for kickball!

I got really in to double Dutch.

I also loved this game with a ball and a wall called 7Up. Anyone ever heard of it?

information.

I could never do that.

I did like Chinese jump rope, though.

Also do you remember singing these little songs as a rope swinger?

Which one will I marry!"

I always purposefully stumbled on Paul. It didn't work though.

I was shallow. I went for cute.

Though looking back at pics of the young George, he was plenty cute too!

That was the most fun, and the best for imaginative kids at recess. All those logs, pipes, levers, and hubbed wheels made for a great imaginary submarine. So we played 'Submarine' at recess. Naturally, I was the Captain, because even at ten or eleven, I knew enough submariner lingo to make a go of it.

And jump rope or marbles

Liked dodge ball until they banned it. Too many kids getting hurt.

Forgot one year the yoyo was popular.

We played with a large rubber ball and I remember I was one of the best at being able to kick the ball. I could get that ball sailing through the air like a batter hitting a home run.

We all tried to swing as high as possible. Sometimes we would stand on the swing. They were flat hard seats, not the rubber strap kind. I fell off mine once and got gravel in my knee and was sent to the nurse’s office. Back then girls had to wear dresses to school. Hardly any girls would play on the jungle gym because of the wearing dresses thing. The boys would stand on the ground below and look up your dress and make comments if you did. What a dumb rule! One of many dumb rules for girls only back then. Our school chose a different student every morning raise the flag. But it always had to be a boy. Girls weren’t allowed to raise the flag. I don’t know why. Oh, don’t get me started…..

church. but our neighborhood playground was fully equipped with equipment. Swings were my favorite. We would swing really high and jump off into the gravel. Yes, I remember the boys putting the flag up , never girls. But as it was after school activity , I could wear my shorts and use the jungle gym and the merry go round.

It was a place called Beaverbrook I think, and they had an old, abandoned school bus that we would play in.

When I say abandoned, I mean rust everywhere, the pads on the seats were all worn or torn with big ol' springs popping out everywhere. We loved playing in that thing!!

Although the "touches" bordered on tackles periodically. I came in dripping blood from my chin once as a 5th grader.

engaged in not getting beat up by the bigger kids. And every kid was literally bigger than me

they grew out of their mean ways or stayed the same bullies they were in their younger days.

Red rover for impromtu games

parking lot to get out their energy..

I'm not sure it was a favorite, but I remember doing it most of the time at recess for a few years.

Problem with runaway balls is they usually got pounced on by kids who didn't want to give them back.
A body had to be careful with their jacks. Teachers tended to confiscate them, as well as marbles.
I also liked swings and hopscotch. I hated the jungle gym. The rings were better.

Teacher let me use the school's parachute. There are all kinds of activities to do with it.

We'd all take our cap pistols to school. By the time recess was over the playground smelled like a battlefield. Times were sure different then.

In elementary school, I despised the little girls who had nothing better to do during recess than to walk around the playground, holding the hand of the Principal or the hands of those who were holding the hand of the Principal.

I eschewed the swings, the sliding pond, hop-scotch, the jungle gym, tag, etc. I looked forward to winter where we had indoor recess where I could read.

catching 90% of the missed basketball shots.

However, at 11:45am we walked home for lunch and returned an hour later. When I got home for lunch I was greeted with a bowl of Campbell’s soup, usually chicken or turkey noodle, accompanied by half a luncheon meat sandwich which I devoured in front of the tv while watching Jeopardy with Art Fleming. I felt so grown up when I was actually able to answer one of the questions and thus began my 60 year journey with that game show.

Jeopardy question.