My playground places

Lately I have been introduced to a place I haven’t visited for a long time: the playground (in Finnish, leikkialue). The reason is the most common one any adult visits in this place, but this is not about cute and clever child. This is about my relationship with the playground.

As hard as I try I cannot remember, when I was taken to play in the playground for the first time. I was probably quite young, as we lived in a suburb where there were lots of playgrounds placed around the area. The kindergarten I went to had one as well: there were swings, carousels, springs shaped as horses, slides, sandboxes, and climbing frames, many of each as the suburb was new and kindergarten full of children. I can remember my favorite equipment, which was some kind of mix between swing and spring, and would probably be banned today as being too dangerous. Then again I cannot remember the games we played; I just remember that we played.

When reaching the teenager years, we local teenage rebels had a habit of gathering at the local playground after dusk. At those days we didn’t play with the equipments anymore, if you do not count the coincident swinging while sitting on the swing and chatting to each others. We were there to spend some quality time with our fellow rebel teenagers.

I find it very symbolic that after our childhood we teenager gathered in the playground. The location was familiar to all of us, as we had played there when we all were kids. Maybe the location represented us the safe place to be. It at least gave us the frames to try the games of adults: social intercourse and shy steps of getting to know the other sex. After a while, we were ready for discos and bars and the days spent in playgrounds were history.

And here I am again. Something like ten years later, standing next to a sandbox and watching the child play. As history has a habit of repeating itself, the playground I spend time is located in a brand new suburb with lots of kids around. The role of us adults is the same as when we were teenagers: sit and speak, this time usually about the children playing around. And after couple of years from now, my relationship with the playground will break off again, this time maybe forever.