The Rolla Boys™-Chapter 7

As Beave and I relaxed on the deck awaiting the arrival of Victor, Kevin and Howard, we continued sharing stories about our youth. Recalling our days at Wyman, we talked about how much we enjoyed running around on the asphalt playground, littered with a broad assortment of metal objects and structures, placed strategically by the custodial staff to maximize tripping and falling. We actually had a piece of play ground equipment called THE TOWER. It was a 15 foot tall metal structure made out of World War II scrap metal purchased from Warren Deany's local military surplus yard, and painted a brilliant crimson red (apparently it was painted red so when kids fell off of it and busted their heads open, the blood wouldn't leave discernible stains on the equipment). The tower steps were comprised of rusty, sagging metal chains bolted to the tower legs. The chains made it somewhat difficult for even the non chubby kids to climb the full 15 feet to the top. If you did manage to complete the dangerous climb and pull yourself up onto the platform before one of the 6th graders could push you off, you had a 360 degree view of the entire school grounds, including "The Field".
The Field was where we played tackle football during recess (for you younger folks, back in the 60's in Rolla, Missouri, you could get away with playing tackle football in grade school without pads, without helmets, and without the fear of getting sued for accidently knocking out another kids tooth or breaking his collar bone). Kids were tough back then, as evidenced by the actions of my friend Gordon Startle who played recess football with his arm in a cast (I think he broke it falling off the tower). He cold cocked me with it one time during an after lunch game, which resulted in the only serious fight I personally ever found myself in while attending Wyman. Neither of us landed a hard punch and we were friends again by the time the bell rang to come back inside.
When I think about the asphalt playground; the tower; the pole; the highly feared 15 foot tall curvey apparatus with horizontal bars for climbing up and over (which only 9 guys were ever able to do without having to be "sent up" to see the school nurse to have a few stitches put in their scrotum); the 13 foot long by 8 inch tall metal balance beam (the number 1 tripping hazard for grade school kids in the 60's, designed by dentist and pediatritions); the vertical 4 foot cast iron poles for jumping over with the objective of not racking yourself to death, and the 40 foot slide surrounded by ashpalt and concrete, it strikes me that our grade school playground 'then' closely resembles the training course used 'now' by the Navy Seals. Man how things have changed.