Wooden Playground Swings

Playground swings are found in a variety of materials and styles which I suppose are based on what's available and what the community believes it needs at the time. While some playground equipment has been deemed unsafe, swings are still around despite the danger because they can't be outlawed. The public won't stand for it and although I am not a protester by nature, I will be one of the first in line to protest the removal of the simple swing.

My grandfather built my grandmother a swing when they immigrated from Finland in 1930 and I remember summer visits watching her swing. Mamma was the only adult I ever saw who enjoyed such a pleasure and the sight of her smile as she swung taught me the lesson of finding joy in the little things of life.

As you can see from the above photo, Mamma's swing was BIG and it lasted for years. Not only did I enjoy it while growing up, but I used it whenever I visited with my own growing family. I never asked my husband for a swing, yet one day after we'd been married a dozen or so years he built one using the same principle of Mamma's and that is attaching it to the clothesline pole. As you can see from this next photo taken in the mid-80's, my husband and daughter had as much fun swinging as I did. It was the perfect way to relax after spending hours working in our garden.

We moved a few years later and I had to do my swinging with the kids in playgrounds after that. But you see in the photo how my husband is standing up? That's a lot easier to do on the wooden plank swings than on the newer plastic ones, or even those rubber ones that turn your clothes black. 

My research into old style swings dug up some amusing photos of mothers and their kids, including this one taken in 1910 with, "Mrs. Turner, holding daughter, who is standing in a swing, while looking down at her son holding a kitten." The image is from A Study of Mrs. Turner and her Children, Waban, Mass. and seems to show the mother teaching her daughter how to swing while standing. 

The swing, a study of Mrs. Turner and her children. Made at Waban, Mass., 1910. Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

I found a similar photo in Virginia showing the Art Brown Family at the swings. This one clearly shows that this mother didn't see the danger of her son falling on his head, or if she did, didn't think it was serious enough to stop him from doing it. 

For younger children I found this undated glass negative of children in chair-like wooden swings taken at Hamilton Fish Park, New York. Does anyone want to take a guess at the year?

Children in swings, Hamilton Fish Park, New York, undated. Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

Going back to 1910 is another glass negative showing wooden children's swings in an open-walled shelter from a N.Y. playground.

N.Y. Playground, between ca. 1910 and ca. 1915. Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

But the joy of swinging isn't always a solitary pastime as the above image shows. If the saying, the more the merrier is any indication, then the wooden circular swing in the next image from San Augustine, Texas, should be loads of fun.

Schoolchildren on circular swing, San Augustine, Texas, Aug 1939. Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC

Or would it? Does a circular swing have the same back-and-forth motion like a regular pendulum-type swing? Surely you can't pump your legs for more motion--or can you? Does it turn in a circle as it swings? Has anyone memories of a circular swing that they'd like to share?

When was the last time you had a good swing? Care to share your thoughts and memories of swinging? 

For the record, my next posts (on the fifth day of each month) will be on tire-type and character swings, lawn swings, porch swings, etc, in no particular order. 

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Anita Mae Draper's historical romances are written under the western skies of the Saskatchewan prairie where her love of research and genealogy yield fascinating truths that layer her stories with rich historical details. Anita's short story, Here We Come A-Wassailing, was a finalist for the Word Guild's 2015 Word Awards. Her novellas are included in Austen in Austin Volume 1, The American Heiress Brides Collection, and The Secret Admirer Romance Collection. Readers can check out Anita's Pinterest boards for a visual idea of her stories to enrich their reading experience. Discover more at: 

Website - www.anitamaedraper.com
Pinterest - www.pinterest.com/anitamaedraper/

Fun-Filled Danger of the Giant Stride

This month I continue my series on historic playground equipment with one of several posts on the simple swing. Actually, I'm leaving the simple part for another post because I'm excited to show you old glass negatives and images of swings that brought raised brows when I showed my husband an image of people flying around a pole with a death-grip, and laughing as they flew.

Playgrounds, May Day, Glass negative, 1924 May. Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington

It's called the Giant Stride and for the first half of the 20th century appeared in most school and public playgrounds. This ride is one of those things that people say is the most dangerous of all those on the playground, and yet those who've taken a spin on this ride agree it's the most exciting one of all. In fact, I believe this apparatus is banned in many areas. 

In 1911, Woods Hutchinson published A Handbook of Health which included an area of children's play. Along with detailing mental and running games, he included a section on the Giant Stride.

Playground catalogs of the period show at least two types of Giant Stride with one being a pole with ladder-like chains hanging down. This is the type shown in the above image where the children are gripping with one hand higher than the other. One father has built on of these in his backyard and made a Giant Stride video. As I watched, a young lad jump away as he tired and I wondered how this can be more dangerous than children jumping off a high-flying regular swing.

The image of the Giant Stride No. D128 is from the 1922 Narragansett Machine Company catalog out of Providence, R.I.


The 1932 Fun-Ful Playground Equipment catalog shows a larger version called the Cycle Stride.

But what we now call a playground ride was used back in Victorian Britain as a physical education apparatus at the North London Collegiate School. Established in 1882, this fine college for young women promoted free and unchecked physical activity as a way to develop graceful and flowing movements. 

Even that wasn't the beginning of the Giant Stride, however, because in 1847 George French Angas contributed an illustration to The New Zealanders Illustrated, of New Zealand Maori children swinging above a bank by ropes that hung from a tall pole. The morere swing was made from ropes obtained from the leaves and fibers of the cabbage tree.

"Swing" Angas, George French 1822-1886: The New Zealanders Illustrated, 1847. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Doesn't it look like the children are enjoying themselves? If you love to hear the shrieks and laughter of children having fun check out this another modern video of a homemade backyard Giant Stride. This one is similar to the first, but the children are seated, and from the excited shrieks, it sounds like they're having fun. (https://youtu.be/scxM6jOnXxQ)




Like all things, however, moderation is the key and the danger heightens as people misuse these play activities at the expense of others who may be younger and weaker and unable to keep their grip.

What are your thoughts on the Giant Stride? Any experiences you'd like to share?

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Anita Mae Draper's historical romances are woven under the western skies of the Saskatchewan prairie where her love of research and genealogy yield fascinating truths that layer her stories with rich historical details. Anita's short story, Here We Come A-Wassailing, was a finalist for the Word Guild's 2015 Word Awards. Her novellas are included in Austen in Austin Volume 1, The American Heiress Brides Collection, and The Secret Admirer Romance Collection. Readers can check out Anita's Pinterest boards for a visual idea of her stories to enrich their reading experience. Discover more at: 

Website - www.anitamaedraper.com
Pinterest - www.pinterest.com/anitamaedraper/