Beyond the back yard

The kids next door are out again well the sun is out but you want see them beyond their garden/backyard because that is their world.

Our playground growing up was our streets, park and around the river but could always want more fun things to do. So on hearing that across the river they were getting an adventure playground it caught our attention. This was in the early 1970s and we had a bit of them and us thing with those across the river.

A group of us decided to have some fun and made our way over the bridge for some playtime. The volunteers were happy to see us anyway, we were soon setting about building a den, and there was no shortage of materials. We found some space and laboured through the afternoon building a den. The currency was nails if someone had something you needed you would barter for it also some enterprising youth invested in old car tyres and came up with a business idea.

It was so simple really, he made a small maze with the tyres just big enough to crawl through, covered it with boards, and for a few nails you would crawl through in the dark while is mates and him would either jump up and down on the boards or bash them with sticks to scare you.

Even when there was an adult/volunteers present we still made the rules, and there was no shadowy organization called “Health and Safety” dedicated to ruining children’s fun like these days. We could jump, climb, and play with hammers and no safety gear in sight.

After an afternoon of play, we headed home for something to eat after locking up our den. On returning the volunteers had gone and so had our den, remember them and us, well someone had burnt it to the ground.