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Dangerous Play (Playgrounds; Carnivals; Amusement Parks; Etc.)

You'd probably have to try hard to be killed by one but I'd forgotten how long it is since I saw one - there used to be in every park. They were pretty boring. Do you still get the roundabouts like this which used to be a staple & cause of many an injury from being thrown off?


playground roundabout | My childhood memories, Childhood memories ...
Or getting your foot caught underneath
 
Dang, y'all had some hard-ass playgrounds!

The edgiest pieces of kit in our school playground (central West Virginia circa the mid 1960s) were the three-tiered-wedding-cake-shaped climbing structure made out of metal pipe, and the thing you brachiated across--this was a horizontal ladder sort of object about 6' off the ground, the idea being to climb up and then swing yourself hand-by-hand and rung-by-rung from one end to the other. You could fall off either of them and bust your head open, real easy. One was called the jungle gym and the other was the monkey bars but i don't remember which was which.

I do remember that one day in the 3rd grade our teacher (a sadistic ugly old b*tch by the name of Mabel Ware, who did not like me at all) took the whole class out to the playground and put us thru some exercises and shit--it was the president's physical fitness test or something stupid like that --including making everyone brachiate across the brachiation thing. Or try to, at least. I couldn't, and didn't want to anyway, which got me yelled at and jeered at by Mrs. Ware. I still hate that woman even though she must be pushing up ragweed long since.
 
... One was called the jungle gym and the other was the monkey bars but i don't remember which was which. ...

The larger structure for miscellaneous climbing (etc.) was the jungle gym. The horizontal ladder-type thingie from which you could hang was the monkey bars.

I've heard people refer to the jungle gym as "monkey bars", but I've never heard anyone call the monkey bars a "jungle gym."
 
My primary school (ages 5 - 8) had these type of chin up/pull up bars outside.
They were regarded as strictly for girls, who would spin upside down then back up again on them.

images.jpg
 
This CRACKED article is the funniest thing I've read this week. It's a retrospective review of New Jersey's Action Park - arguably one of the most dangerous water parks / fun parks during its heyday in the 1980s. No ride was too risky to build and try (e.g., an enclosed water slide with a built-in loop-de-loop). Action Park is like what would have occurred if Hieronymus Bosch had designed a playground based on wild ideas from reckless kids ...


FULL STORY: https://www.cracked.com/article_28081_the-terrifying-saga-action-parks-loop-de-loop-slide.html

Now theme parks. In the 90s and early 00s you never heard of any incidents but then they had that awful one Alton Towers and there have been a few since. Now was there better servicing or did you just not hear about any accidents? I was always a wimp anyway. I usually looked after the bags.
 
Now theme parks. In the 90s and early 00s you never heard of any incidents but then they had that awful one Alton Towers and there have been a few since. Now was there better servicing or did you just not hear about any accidents? I was always a wimp anyway. I usually looked after the bags.
Ok not the 00s but the 90s seem to have been the safest period. Reading these I’m glad I was a wimp.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/40441...haunted-house-fire-rollercoaster-crash-rides/
 
Here's the latest - and most spectacular - modern version of a very old way to die (a swing that carries you outward from a clifftop).

Is this the scariest ride you've seen?
World's tallest swing the height of a 30-storey building opens on the edge of a 2,300ft cliff in China

  • The extreme ride in Chongqing, China, welcomed its first visitors on Thursday
  • It has been certified as the 'tallest swing frame' by the Guinness World Records
  • Videos show thrill-seekers screaming after being catapulted at up to 80mph
  • The new attraction consists of a 328ft tall arch and a 354ft tall launching tower
A Chinese scenic spot has opened the world's tallest swing which perches on the edge of a 2,300-foot-tall cliff.

Footage shows thrill-seekers screaming as they were bound to a harness horizontally and flung out at a top speed of 80mph at its grand opening today. ...

FULL STORY (With Photos):
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...storey-building-opens-edge-Chinese-cliff.html
 
Sometimes, the risk of death is not so apparent. Our city has had a summer festival that offers some fairground rides such as bumper cars, ferris wheel etc. One ride which I can’t remember the name of, but will try to explain - it spins around with riders standing along its walls and the centrifugal force holds you in - was involved in the death of a female rider (oddly I can find no reference with g**gle search) about 15 years ago. She had eaten before going on the ride and had vomited during. Because it wasn’t apparent that she was in trouble and no one could hear anything, she choked on her vomit and died.

I do enjoy some rides and had been on that particular one (several years before this incident), but my one thing I have always followed is to enjoy the rides and, when done, then eat.
 
Action Park sounds extraordinary - might have to get that book.
Thanks @EnolaGaia

In the 1980's I went on this water slide in Scarborough.

15375689241_9d9ba0fe50_z.jpg


When whizzing round a curve I felt that I was going too fast and in serious danger of flying off the side, even with a safety guard of about six inches in additional height to the rest of the slide.

Sadly a swimmer died there in 2001, though the media notes it was because a lifeguard refused to believe they were drowning.

But I have a memory that someone actually did fly off the side of the slide - perhaps they were inured not dead?

A more regular place to visit were the now demolished water slides in Richmond, Surrey.
Four of them in the complex - one was mild, one was quite entertaining, one was great fun, and one had an almost sheer drop which left one's stomach in one's throat and a bit sore on the backside!
After landing in the pool at the bottom, where someone else would perhaps crash into you if you were not quick enough to get out, you had to climb stairs to get back to the top.
These stairs were not especially warm, I vaguely remember trying to climb them as fast as possible to avoid the cold.
There were rumours someone had fixed razor blades to the inside of the slides using chewing gum - a persistent urban myth?

richmond.jpg
 
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Here's the latest - and most spectacular - modern version of a very old way to die (a swing that carries you outward from a clifftop).

Is this the scariest ride you've seen?
World's tallest swing the height of a 30-storey building opens on the edge of a 2,300ft cliff in China

  • The extreme ride in Chongqing, China, welcomed its first visitors on Thursday
  • It has been certified as the 'tallest swing frame' by the Guinness World Records
  • Videos show thrill-seekers screaming after being catapulted at up to 80mph
  • The new attraction consists of a 328ft tall arch and a 354ft tall launching tower
A Chinese scenic spot has opened the world's tallest swing which perches on the edge of a 2,300-foot-tall cliff.

Footage shows thrill-seekers screaming as they were bound to a harness horizontally and flung out at a top speed of 80mph at its grand opening today. ...

FULL STORY (With Photos):
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...storey-building-opens-edge-Chinese-cliff.html

Nope. Hell to the NOPE.
 
Sometimes, the risk of death is not so apparent. Our city has had a summer festival that offers some fairground rides such as bumper cars, ferris wheel etc. One ride which I can’t remember the name of, but will try to explain - it spins around with riders standing along its walls and the centrifugal force holds you in - was involved in the death of a female rider (oddly I can find no reference with g**gle search) about 15 years ago. She had eaten before going on the ride and had vomited during. Because it wasn’t apparent that she was in trouble and no one could hear anything, she choked on her vomit and died.

I do enjoy some rides and had been on that particular one (several years before this incident), but my one thing I have always followed is to enjoy the rides and, when done, then eat.

Oh, I remember that horrid ride. When they had it at our County Fair, it was called the Roundup (clever, huh?).

My own name for it (after my one and only spin) was The Wheel Of Barf.
 
Ah yes. We had the horizontal ladder Monkey Bars in our playgrounds. Of course, the correct ways to use that particular piece of equipment are 1) Jump out to reach the furthest rung away you can and fall off. 2). Get on top and walk across imagining a pool of hungry crocodiles underneath. Then fall off.
 
I might have mentioned this before, but where I grew up in Warwickshire we had a thing called the Mop. It does the rounds over a few weeks (Warwick Mop, Stratford Mop, Kenilworth Mop etc) and for a weekend all the roads in the town centre are closed and a travelling funfair sets up in the market square, high street etc.

Here's the background:

Warwick Mop Fair began when King Edward III granted a legal charter that it be held in the town centre, at a time when the stone version of the castle was being built and before Lord Leycester was even born let alone building hospitals. Many significant towns in the area have similar charters including Stratford upon Avon, Southam, Banbury, Tewksbury, Alcester, Evesham, Abingdon and so on. Each year these towns have fairground attractions in their town centres and surrounding streets.

Warwick Mop is held every year on the Friday and Saturday following the 12th day of October, with the ‘Runaway Mop’ held the following Friday and Saturday. The 12th is the date for calculating when many of the local mop fairs happen. It is believed to be linked to a date the harvesting was completed, in olden days. Stratford’s Mop is held on the 12th, Southam the Monday after the 12th and so on.

When the Mop first started nearly seven hundred years ago the event was a hiring fair for local labourers and employers to meet in a social setting. Workers would be hired for a trial period of a week; hence the Runaway Mop the following weekend allowing either party to back out if they were unhappy with the arrangement. Once the formalities were over, the labourers could spend their token wage (given by the new employers) at the stalls gathered for the occasion or the local pubs!

The title ‘Mop’ has been a subject of debate by historians for a number of years. The most likely link is that labourers wore a symbol (a badge almost) to identify their trade. This meant employers would instantly recognise those wanting work in their industry. These symbols were believed to have been known as mops...

http://www.warwickmopfair.co.uk/history.html



Aaannyywayy.... one of my mates worked in a local hardware store and one year a group of 'Moppies' came in asking for a bolt to secure a Waltzer car onto the track.

"No problem mate, what size do you need?"

"Er, I dunno....about this big?"

Never got on a mop ride against since then.
 
I might have mentioned this before, but where I grew up in Warwickshire we had a thing called the Mop. It does the rounds over a few weeks (Warwick Mop, Stratford Mop, Kenilworth Mop etc) and for a weekend all the roads in the town centre are closed and a travelling funfair sets up in the market square, high street etc.

Here's the background:

Warwick Mop Fair began when King Edward III granted a legal charter that it be held in the town centre, at a time when the stone version of the castle was being built and before Lord Leycester was even born let alone building hospitals. Many significant towns in the area have similar charters including Stratford upon Avon, Southam, Banbury, Tewksbury, Alcester, Evesham, Abingdon and so on. Each year these towns have fairground attractions in their town centres and surrounding streets.

Warwick Mop is held every year on the Friday and Saturday following the 12th day of October, with the ‘Runaway Mop’ held the following Friday and Saturday. The 12th is the date for calculating when many of the local mop fairs happen. It is believed to be linked to a date the harvesting was completed, in olden days. Stratford’s Mop is held on the 12th, Southam the Monday after the 12th and so on.

When the Mop first started nearly seven hundred years ago the event was a hiring fair for local labourers and employers to meet in a social setting. Workers would be hired for a trial period of a week; hence the Runaway Mop the following weekend allowing either party to back out if they were unhappy with the arrangement. Once the formalities were over, the labourers could spend their token wage (given by the new employers) at the stalls gathered for the occasion or the local pubs!

The title ‘Mop’ has been a subject of debate by historians for a number of years. The most likely link is that labourers wore a symbol (a badge almost) to identify their trade. This meant employers would instantly recognise those wanting work in their industry. These symbols were believed to have been known as mops...

http://www.warwickmopfair.co.uk/history.html



Aaannyywayy.... one of my mates worked in a local hardware store and one year a group of 'Moppies' came in asking for a bolt to secure a Waltzer car onto the track.

"No problem mate, what size do you need?"

"Er, I dunno....about this big?"

Never got on a mop ride against since then.
Reminds me of my Alton Towers story.
 
The way I heard it, it was a fair for the well-to-do to employ servants and cleaners. Hence Mop. A few days later, Stratford hosts the Runaway Mop which is a smaller affair, traditionally for those recently employed who realise they were not in the best position with a suitable master of the house to regroup and scramble around and search for new employment. Around here you can see the fairground rides parked up on the lay-bys as they move from town to town. Yes. Southam has a version too.
 
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That was kind of the impression I got but was not sure.
 
It's thought that a 'mop' was the name of the small badge people wore to show what their trade was, back in the days when it was an employment fair. We were told at school that employees would carry something to show their skills, so cleaner would hold a mop, but I think the badge is more likely.
 
This CRACKED article is the funniest thing I've read this week. It's a retrospective review of New Jersey's Action Park - arguably one of the most dangerous water parks / fun parks during its heyday in the 1980s. No ride was too risky to build and try (e.g., an enclosed water slide with a built-in loop-de-loop). Action Park is like what would have occurred if Hieronymus Bosch had designed a playground based on wild ideas from reckless kids ...


FULL STORY: https://www.cracked.com/article_28081_the-terrifying-saga-action-parks-loop-de-loop-slide.html
LOL .. I really enjoyed reading that, thanks .. I wonder if there's any Action Park T Shirts or memorabilia on ebay? ..

edit: Result!

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...ction+park+.TRS0&_nkw=action+park+nj&_sacat=0
 
You can see here how the rides totally take over.

View attachment 28300
There used to be a ride like that at Alton Towers in the 80's except it raised up higher and you stood on it in your own cage compartment round the edges, the g force or whatever pinning you to the back of your cage so there was no safety harness, just a thin metal chain … one year we watched it get up to full speed and as high as it could go and then some bloke on the ride threw up, spraying everyone in the first two lines of the que :twothumbs:
 
I posted the Action Park documentary trailer on the Fortean Docs thread a few months ago... alas, the film itself seems to be in limbo, though the same guys did a 15-minute effort some years back that should be on YouTube.
 
In the 1980's I went on this water slide in Scarborough.

I believe we have a picture of my mother-in-law sitting in front of that water park in the 1970s - the slide structure looks familiar. Which suggests that the in-house Medic must have survived them as well.
 
Hot Poker? .. you didn't know you were born sunshine, our Mam used a box of England Glory matches.
Being American, I had to look that up to learn more about this unfamiliar object. They certainly go well with accidents, I think: "England's Glory is a brand of non-safety matches, available in the United Kingdom, using a celebrated image of a Victorian battleship, HMS Devastation.

Another favourite was to climb to the top of the cone and drape yourself over with your feet one side and your head the other. This could make you feel deliciously dizzy, but you were stuck there until your mates stopped it spinning.
Sounds like good training for future astronauts.
 
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