When I was a boy, there was nothing I liked more than going with the family to one of our favorite parks. The park itself was on an enormous estate where a once great mansion had been converted into a museum. The ground surrounding the mansion were open to the public and it was rumored that seven men, and seven boys had taken seven years to build the giant brick walls that encircled the seven square miles of the grounds.
Near the entrance to the park was an adventure playground built like a number of wooden swing sets all together. There were climbing towers and a zip line that ran through the trees. There were rope bridges and climbing areas. Toward one end of the structure was a log cabin that looked out onto a smaller playground for younger children. Here tunnels and slides connecting a network places to hide and enjoy joined wooden swing sets.
The park was an amazing place to visit and even when my parents wanted to take a picnic lunch and sit on the grass enjoying the afternoon, I would insist that we had time to go and play on the wooden swing sets and buildings.
Although my parents always insisted on living in a home with a garden, they were not much for allowing the children to have a wooden swing sets in the back yard. The closest we ever came to having one was when build a tree house and added an old tire swing to it from one of the branches that leaned out over the grass.
Now that I am grown and have children of my own I understand their desire to get out and play on wooden swing sets. Playgrounds and parks that have wooden swing sets offer a world of fantasy and excitement to young minds that can spend countless hours having adventures in jungles, outer space, aboard pirate ships or under the sea.
The imagination of a child is far greater than the limits of swings and slides. To a child wooden swing sets are the gateway to wondrous worlds of imagination and fun. Wooden swings sets open up the mind and allow children to be and do anything that the desire or dream about. They are the tools that children play on to bring adventure to life and the jumping off point for building creativity in children of all ages.
Eastern Jungle Gym, Inc. (http://kidgymzswingsets.com) builds wooden swing sets for family use in backyards and playgrounds and schools. Billings Farnsworth is a freelance writer.
