The Child’s Playground

I am no different than any kid growing up… I just did it in the 50s. When I was a kid there were no Nintendo games, or PCs, or computer games.

Different times I guess. What amuses us, or how we seek to be amused.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not one to complain. As an “adult”, I found great joy in the Legend of Zelda and the Oregon Trail… two games that we had for the kids that I fancied.

But as a kid, my world was largely one of my invention… the simplest of “props” would be the source for hours of play.

Take our staircase, for example… from our downstairs hall 10 stairs to the landing, and another 4 stairs up to the second floor hall. It was fully carpeted. This you must know, or what follows will appear more ridiculous than it actually was.

But first, a small, but somewhat related digression. When was the last time you rolled down a hill? You know… spread yourself out, and let gravity take its course… slowly at first, and then accelerating as your form rolls down the grassy hill like a log… bumping hither and yon. For the record, I did it in front of Suzy’s dorm last year. She has a perfect hill made for this activity. One sunny afternoon I was waiting for Suzy to come down from her room and I saw some little kids rolling down the hill and giggling… what can I say? I couldn’t resist.

When I was a kid, our staircase took on the form of an indoor hill. No grass. Just carpet. I would go half way up, pick a stair of my choosing, sit down, give myself a little forward push, let momentum take over, and thump my way to the bottom. Sometimes I would begin the journey from the stair at the landing.

But if I decided to make my “run” from the landing, more often than not, I would flip over to my belly, spread out length wise… and slide down the stairs… somewhat like a human “slinky”.

These forms of staircase play would occupy me briefly… you know your tush or belly can only take so much of a beating.

When I got a bit older, our staircase morphed into a field for athletic contests. I must have seen Paul race into the house and run up the stairs two and three at a time. And while he may have been the inspiration, my pursuit of excellence in this endeavor was purely solitary. I spent many an hour running up those stairs.

I can remember the joy when I was finally able to do three stairs. And then there was the day when I began my approach from the den, picking up speed in the living room and then jumped three steps followed by another three!

The real test would be to make the landing in three jumps. This I couldn’t do until I was a teenager… four steps (that was hard enough), followed by three and then another three.

“Downhill” events were also part of the sport. There was not much variety here… it was simply a matter of what stair you would use as a launch pad to the hall below… and, of course, how far into the hall did you land.

Quite unintentionally I set the record in this event in 1966, my senior year at Hamden Hall. Earlier in the day I had broken my leg on the gridiron. After the game, Paul (it was the only time he saw me play football) took me to the hospital where a cast was put on my left leg from my toes to mid-thigh. My football career was at an end.

But that not withstanding, I was scheduled to take Ellen to our homecoming dance that night (it was to be our first formal date). Back at the house I changed, I knew I was running late, I was rushing and not yet skilled in the art of using crutches…

I fell down the stairs face first. That would be from stair #8… clearly a record. Although not great distance into the hall.

It was a miracle that I sustained no further injury, save to my pride.

Well… you know, no one ever got hurt playing Legend of Zelda… and pride is but a small matter when you consider the glories of the staircase.

Let me think about this for a second… OK, here it is… One part heart, one part athletic ability, two parts imagination & give me a staircase any day.

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