Is it illegal or just creepy for me to review a park and playground, considering I don't have any…read morechildren of my own? Hold on just a minute, someone is knocking at my door. Oh hey, how's it going Chris Hansen? In all seriousness, while babysitting our preschool-aged nieces, my wife and I became very well acquainted with the playground at Hodgkins Park in Davis Square. This review is both an evaluation of the beautiful park and playground, which was recently renovated by the City of Somerville, and a testament to how far playgrounds have come since I was a child.
Not being professional parents, we asked ourselves what would one do when their children had enormous energy reserves to burn? Go to the the playground, of course! It just so happened that the City of Somerville had recently revamped Hodgkins Park in Davis Square, so we strolled on down to take a look.
As we passed through the front gate, under the steel Hodgkins Park sign, past the exquisitely manicured baseball field, we turned left to enter the gated playground. When I was a child, our playgrounds weren't gated or fenced in. I wouldn't say that we were encouraged to run-off, but with freedom so close, we were tempted.
The first thing I noticed was that the pavement was spongy under foot. Can this be, I thought? But it was true...a rubberized surface! Children can repeatedly fall face-first from their scooters without any loss of teeth or IQ points. When I was a kid, we paved our playgrounds with asphalt and cement, and a fall from anything meant butterfly stitches at best.
We continued further, and found treehouse-like structures with all sorts of fun accessories. After climbing into the treehouse by ladder or stairs, you could make a fast or slow descent via straight or curvy plastic slides, respectively. Well now smack my butt and call me Susan! If this wasn't the most revolutionary thing in slide technology I have ever witnessed. When I was a child, we had metal slides. Not only did you rocket down these things like a greased pig, always missing the "soft" (i.e. dirt) landing, but they were great conductors of heat. In the summer, the hot metal burned our legs, and in the winter, it stuck to our tongues like super glue.
Next, we arrived at the playground's sand box. This wasn't really a box, per se, but rather an exhibit in interactive sand design. There were plastic buckets, shovels, trucks, and numerous other ways to move sand from place to place. This was sand Nirvana, and there was oh so much of it! When I was a child, you had to bring your own toys to the sandbox, and then hope that no one stole them from you. Furthermore, real sand was considered a luxury. If we were lucky, "sand" was delivered once a month. The street sweeper would back up to our playground and empty its contents into our 8' X 8" wood bordered sand box. Oh the fun we had separating the "sand" from cigarette butts and other refuse. Many future recycling and reclamation workers were trained in that sand box. Perhaps this is one instance in which it was better when I was a child...our playgrounds provided career training.
Next we moved on to the swings, which were well anchored into the ground, and whose chains didn't pinch young fingers. They seemed perfectly safe, and the girls loved them.
The Hodgkins Park Playground has a water feature! I was in awe! Water cascading down metal chutes, inviting children to splash and soak each other in the hot afternoon sun. Again, in my day, we had stagnant mud puddles.
We stopped briefly at the merry-go-round. The children sat safely behind bars that held them in place as we spun it faster and faster. When I was little, the bars were meant to be held onto, in order to counter the centrifugal force. If you let go, bones would surely be broken.
Last, but not least, the playground has a variation on a jungle gym with monkey bars, which our older niece gleefully enjoyed. She swung back and forth dozens of times, and if she accidentally fell, the surface was as soft and safe as the rest of the park. When I was a child, I specifically recall that our jungle gym was constructed from reclaimed lead pipes. We risked tetanus and heavy metal poisoning every time we climbed upon it. Despite these hazards, we would climb to the top of the jungle gym to look at the curious little score marks in the pipes. You see, it was rumored that one of the older kids, Billy "Screw-Eye", used to hang from the upper rungs by his teeth. I wonder what ever happened to Billy?
We left, completely exhausted, after more than an hour of pure, blissful playground fun. The children enjoyed themselves so much, and I was amazed at how far playgrounds have evolved since I was a child. Kudos to Somerville and its workers for providing local children and parents with such a fun, safe place to play. Tremendous design and topnotch construction! Now if you'll excuse me, Chris wants me to take a seat and tell him what's in the paper bag.
