Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Particularly Rambunctious

The last line of this ad is actually pretty funny:

ZHU ZHU PETS PIPSQUEAK! New in Box - $35 (San Diego)

"Oh, hi, little Susie? Your mother bought you a Christmas present, but she doesn't want to give it to you anymore. Would you take $30?"

Once again, Perennial Powerhouse Poster and local craigslist celebrity "frogtoes" brings the knowledge:

Basket of used screwdrivers - $25 (Kensington -Normal Heights)

Seriously, 50 screwdrivers, just like that. Boo-Yah! Comes with basket. Can't beat that with a monkey wrench. And it's a truly epic assortment of screwdrivers, too. Going to give the big prize to this post, though:

Play ground equipment - $1750 (Normal Heights-Hillcrest)

Oh-Em-Eff-Gee. Far and away the most intense kiddie toy I have ever seen in all my life. That is nearly as involved as some public playgrounds, yet it's private property. Check out the models on the Rainbow Play Systems website. They go way beyond the one for sale in the advertisement. Crazy! Did you see Metropolis (no. 85)? It's like a small town made out of rope ladders and slides. Excellent.

And yet, I can't help but think that this--like any other toy bought for or owned by children--the personal playground will fall by the wayside and be forgotten, ignored by the terrifically fleeting interests of kids. It's within their nature as children to play with something once or twice and then move one. It's not their fault--it's how they tear through a whole world of stimuli and information, processing everything they need to know and find out. They toys themselves aren't necessarily at fault, either. True, lots of toys are made to cater to short, childish attention spans, but even ones that are clearly built with the intention of giving "years of enjoyment" (or whatever promise of protracted fun the manufacturers make) are doomed at their very genesis. Nothing offers kids lasting entertainment--that's the province of boring grown-ups like us.

Which brings me to my point: why can't I have a playground? Seriously, where is it written that the Parks Dept. can't erect adult sized playgrounds in addition to (instead of? asking too much?) the kid-oriented affairs that polka dot our urban landscape. After all, anyone knows that kids really need nothing more than a pointy stick and a field to swing it in. Us adults are the ones who would really put the playground to use. The closest thing we get to a playground in this world is the gym, which, in addition to being always indoors (and therefore stuffy and perpetually tinged with the delightful olfactory cocktail of sweaty bodies in extremis) is corrupted by the overarching requirement that all the fun be stripped away in the name of "fitness." Blah.

What I want is huge monkey bars, gigantic rope bridges, climbing walls, and high-velocity slides; all of which will be built to a scale that challenges an adult physicality. I say, bring it on! Let's let the grown-ups play, since they're the ones who can actually appreciate engineering and public spaces on more than a surface level for more than a few moments. I don't know what's inappropriate about adults pretending to be a combination Ninja-Indiana Jones--I just know that it's time to lift that particular injunction. I once worked with a guy who had a particularly rambunctious daughter. He and I got to talking once about how it would be a better world if adults learned to live a little more like kids every now and again. Maybe the ten-year-old's vision of the world as a playground would be of enormous benefit for some adults to hold.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all

Previous article

The Fellini of Clairemont High

When gang showers were standard for gym class

The last line of this ad is actually pretty funny:

ZHU ZHU PETS PIPSQUEAK! New in Box - $35 (San Diego)

"Oh, hi, little Susie? Your mother bought you a Christmas present, but she doesn't want to give it to you anymore. Would you take $30?"

Once again, Perennial Powerhouse Poster and local craigslist celebrity "frogtoes" brings the knowledge:

Basket of used screwdrivers - $25 (Kensington -Normal Heights)

Seriously, 50 screwdrivers, just like that. Boo-Yah! Comes with basket. Can't beat that with a monkey wrench. And it's a truly epic assortment of screwdrivers, too. Going to give the big prize to this post, though:

Play ground equipment - $1750 (Normal Heights-Hillcrest)

Oh-Em-Eff-Gee. Far and away the most intense kiddie toy I have ever seen in all my life. That is nearly as involved as some public playgrounds, yet it's private property. Check out the models on the Rainbow Play Systems website. They go way beyond the one for sale in the advertisement. Crazy! Did you see Metropolis (no. 85)? It's like a small town made out of rope ladders and slides. Excellent.

And yet, I can't help but think that this--like any other toy bought for or owned by children--the personal playground will fall by the wayside and be forgotten, ignored by the terrifically fleeting interests of kids. It's within their nature as children to play with something once or twice and then move one. It's not their fault--it's how they tear through a whole world of stimuli and information, processing everything they need to know and find out. They toys themselves aren't necessarily at fault, either. True, lots of toys are made to cater to short, childish attention spans, but even ones that are clearly built with the intention of giving "years of enjoyment" (or whatever promise of protracted fun the manufacturers make) are doomed at their very genesis. Nothing offers kids lasting entertainment--that's the province of boring grown-ups like us.

Which brings me to my point: why can't I have a playground? Seriously, where is it written that the Parks Dept. can't erect adult sized playgrounds in addition to (instead of? asking too much?) the kid-oriented affairs that polka dot our urban landscape. After all, anyone knows that kids really need nothing more than a pointy stick and a field to swing it in. Us adults are the ones who would really put the playground to use. The closest thing we get to a playground in this world is the gym, which, in addition to being always indoors (and therefore stuffy and perpetually tinged with the delightful olfactory cocktail of sweaty bodies in extremis) is corrupted by the overarching requirement that all the fun be stripped away in the name of "fitness." Blah.

What I want is huge monkey bars, gigantic rope bridges, climbing walls, and high-velocity slides; all of which will be built to a scale that challenges an adult physicality. I say, bring it on! Let's let the grown-ups play, since they're the ones who can actually appreciate engineering and public spaces on more than a surface level for more than a few moments. I don't know what's inappropriate about adults pretending to be a combination Ninja-Indiana Jones--I just know that it's time to lift that particular injunction. I once worked with a guy who had a particularly rambunctious daughter. He and I got to talking once about how it would be a better world if adults learned to live a little more like kids every now and again. Maybe the ten-year-old's vision of the world as a playground would be of enormous benefit for some adults to hold.

Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

A Vital Part Of The Breakfast Pantheon

Next Article

Low-Res

Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader