So there’s my buddy, Big Johnny, with his son… my godson… William. Before we get to more of the adventure, admire that man right there. He broke a small bone in his shoulder, and he is still teaching Willie to hammer nails… at this crazy place…
Yes, it’s the ‘Adventure Playground’… where your kid can take tools… and their own life… in their hands.
Where the climbing structures may have been started by qualified adults, but they have since been added to by often unsupervised children. You might grab part of a ladder and find out it has one nail holding it up there. Only in Berkeley could you create a place like this.
Now don’t get me wrong. This is an awesome idea. And kids need to learn that the world isn’t a safe place. Hell, when I was a kid, they didn’t have seat belts in most cars, and we used to go down steep hills on go-karts we made ourselves, with no helmets. But people didn’t used to sue other people so often. You even need to sign a waiver to get into this place. And, according to the sign, you can leave kids over the age of 7 there… alone… for three hours.
One cool lesson the kids learn is that, to get a tool, or some paint, you need to find some stuff. You can use a big magnet on a string to find old nails… which points out the fact that the sand is full of old, rusty nails.
Oh, a ‘Mr. Dangerous’ is not a sandwich, it is a board with the sharp end of one or more nails sticking out. Yup.
So, yeah, awesome and terrifying at the same time.
Like I said in the last post… part playground, part junkyard.
That sign makes a good point. It is fine to let little kids swing hammers at nails right next to other small kids, but you don’t want them dropping them from the high parts… it’s already dangerous enough up there.
Maybe I am a nervous parent, but I don’t know if I would have brought my daughters to a place like this when they were four.
If you look closely, you will see, in that photo above, a kid flying through the air… on a zip line… put together by… whoever… that drops the kid off in a big pile of sand… full of old, rusty nails.
I had to take a walk, and that is where the next part of the adventure comes in… in the next post.
Pouring My Art Out 