Epic Win: Monkey Bars
Submitted by David W
Monkey Bars are an essential and epic part of childhood! Nevermind that it was just a couple of bars spaced just far enough apart that kids could swing from them, there was so much more to do on them! You could climb up on top and do Cherry drops, Double Unders, and more. Whole days could be wasted just swinging back and forth across them, followed by running up, down, around and through whatever structure usually accompanied the Monkey Bars.
(NSFW language)
Totally an epic win, especially when compared with the low-to-the-ground, cushioned-landing, rounded-corners monkey bars they give kids these days. We risked death climbing up to the top to be king or queen of the monkey bars, and we liked it!
right on, i broke a leg and an arm doing stupid awesome things on those…also knocked myself out too, god i miss second grade. all you had to cushion your fall was gravel and black top, and a nurse that said walk it off….
We had these bars too, they were three next to eachother. Short, Middle, and really tall. (Espeacily when you’re little.) I fell off the top one and that’s exactly what the nurse said, “Walk it off.”
what was great was when she’d seen you so many times in the office that she would shine a light in your eyes ask you what day it was and then smack you for being so dumb…then it was straight back to class with a note of your stupidity taped to your back for your parents. kids these days get sent home as soon as they have a hangnail…so sad.
lol i broke my right leg and left arm at the same time on monkey bars. I climbed up on top and jumped off. Had done it plenty times before but this time i got my leg caught hehe.
Never knocked myself out tho hehe. What was worse was we had the bouncy safety outdoor ground stuff, (cant remember what its called hehe), so many people got silly injuries in that park lol.
Oh I remember that, my sister used to play on one of those before she fell off and landed on her arm.
But that was a long time ago…
I wish the picture featured monkey bars that were more old-fashioned looking!
I agree! In my elementary school playground they were cold grey steel and 10 ft. high!
Dang straight. Steel was the best! And they sizzled in the heat, and froze in the winter. You could barely touch them, but touch them you did! Enough to get blisters all over your hands from the friction! I was PROUD of those blisters.
It was also great to ‘accidentally’ kick another girl (because you know girls did it more) in the head as you were lifting yourself up to hang upside down with your legs.
I have fond memories of the monkey bars in my elementary school playground. Lunch and recess were combined, so I had to be careful not to get pizza grease all over my hands.
All of us had mad skills on those old school monkey bars. We would compare the blisters on our hands to prove how awesome we were to all the other kids.
Epic Fail.
These weren’t even fun the first time around.
Aww, don’t be bitter just because you don’t have any arms.
Awesome fun to be had on monkey bars!
Also…
Does anybody else feel slightly worried by the fact that the adults are openly swearing in front of the 7 year (roughly) old kids?
What do you mean, parents swearing in front of kids in general? Sorry cant see how this is related if it is supposed to be hehe. But yeah it is slightly worrying, kids pick up stuff like that really quick probably cause they know its bad hehe.
Amen! I loved my school’s old playground so much. We didn’t even get wood chips until I was almost to old to use it, just hard packed dirt. (Might as well have been concrete) I went back and they redid it. No metal! No bars! Cousined dirt!
Wasn’t the worst when you fell off and knocked the wind out of yourself? That is the scariest thing for a little kid.
I could never do monkey bars.
This made me sad.
I don’t miss the past.
You’re not alone on this one ;-;
I could never do the monkey bars or most anything athletic….. I wasn’t even overweight, I just sucked D;
my friend broke his arm on those things….but he still plays on them today….he’s 14
i loved playing on these things when i was in second grade, i could hang upside down and pretend i was a bat, i would play on the monkey bars until i had dirt and blisters on my hands. and my playground was covered with rocks, so it would hurt like heck when i fell. and sometimes the other boys and girls would play chicken on the bars witch is when you have to kick with your legs until the other persoms pants fell off.
(going off topic) and i hated P.E., the boys were too rough and they would always end up hurting me, i actually one time had to get sent to the nurse because one day we were playing flag and a huge group of boys surrounded me and pushed me to the ground and started hitting me and then stole my flag
there was like 14 boys in that pe class and only 7 girls. i was playing on a bouncy ball and the boy i hated kicked me off, knocking the air right out of me as i landed on my back, the teacher didnt care that i was covered in grass and dirt. for some reason i was always the fragil kid that always got picked on and hurt in p.e.
I fell off the monkey bars when I was 3 or 4 and literally broke my back. I wasn’t allowed to do somersaults or gymnastics for the next 10 years or so, but there appears to be no permanent damage, fortunately.
I…I still gave them a “thumbs up”.
I remember these well. I use to spin around and around on top with one knee and then flip to a cherry drop. I remember the blisters on my hands and the raw patch behind my knees… There was this one girl that had mastered the spin using both knees… we were in awe of her…
Those were great. Even better were those huge dome jungle gyms which went up to about 8-10 feet off the ground. They were fun and terrifying to climb up on, and it was just as easy to fall through the rungs.
OHMYGOD I loved those dome things!!! I remember they took ours down and replaced it with some stupid crap plastic thing that no one liked… it was a sad day on the playground. Apparently the dome was ‘too dangerous.’ pshh.
I never played with these until I was tall enough to reach the ground because I had no upper body strength whatsoever. when I tried, I would make it two bars in and fall. all the boys liked to show off and go all the way across.
when i was in the first grade i fell off the monkey bars and broke both my arm and leg and was in a wheelchair for 9 weeks, longest time of my life, i just wanted to get back on them and do the kick a@@ trick i was trying to do in the first place!
I can’t count how many blisters we got from swinging on these things.
Broke my wrist falling off the monkey bars. Did that stop me from playing on them later? No.
I could never do these but my mom tells me that (who went to elementary school during the 50’s) could kick butt on these. My grandmother would forbid her from going on them, her blisters would heal, and she’d be out there again. I had a friend in grade school who could do these as well, and I remember the silver-dollar sized raw spots on her palms…
Another friend (a guy) could kick butt doing penny drops and cherry drops on the single bars. He was fearless and absolutely crazy.
I used to be awesome on these things, but now I’m too tall and can’t do them