James H. Cagle
The slide was a new addition to the playground equipment at Pine Grove Elementary School. We already had swings, a merry-go-round, see-saws, and plenty of room left over on the playground to play kickball, or anything else for that matter.
Pine Grove was a school for children who lived in the Bemiss community. It went from first grade to the sixth grade. At the time when my mother attended Pine Grove, it went from the first grade all the way to the eleventh grade. In those days, Eleven grades were all one had to go in order to graduate from high school. When my mother attended Pine Grove, she played on the women’s basketball team. The women played only half court during that time.
The students at Pine Grove were introduced to the slide one day at the beginning of recess. Teachers took their classes out and instructed them how to play safely on the slide. There could be no pushing or shoving on the slide because someone might fall off. Everyone had to line up and take turns.
To elementary students the slide looked huge. It looked to us to be fifty feet tall but was really about twenty feet high. None of us had ever seen anything like it. This was before there were any of the fantastic rides available at the many theme parks around the country.
In order to play on the slide, we had to have written permission from our parents. I guess this was to protect the school from being sued if a child fell off the slide. But once we brought the written permission from our parents, we could attack the slide.
The slide was kind of scary at first. None of us had climbed anything that high before. But after the third or fourth time sliding down, you lost your fear of the height. The day after your first slide you might be a little scared, but you soon became a pro and could go up and down the slide lickety-split.
Some teachers took turns standing around the steps going up to the slide to catch any student that fell. But they soon left us to our own devices. It would be hard to fall off the slide when you were sandwiched between two others going up the slide. If you did happen to fall, others would fall with you, and you would probably fall on top of someone else.
The slide was anchored in cement at the heel under the steps and at the toe where the slider shot out. The steps were aluminum and had perforations in the steps to keep the climber from slipping. If I’m not mistaken, the perforations in our slide were in the shape of stars. The slide itself was made of stainless steel. It just sparkled in the sun light. The slide also got very hot. If you touched it with your hand when the sun had shown on it all day, it would burn you. When it was hot like this, we would climb the steps and fold our hands in our lap as we went down the slide. There was no gripping the sides and stopping halfway down on days when the slide was hot.
After a while we had a hole at the bottom of the slide where we would land with our feet. When it rained that hole filled with water. If it rained the night before and filled the hole with water, we had to spread our feet when we came off the slide to miss the puddle. Some chose to hit the puddle when they came down. These students went back to the classroom with wet shoes and pants.
The slide we played on at Pine Grove elementary school was nothing compared to what children slide down today, but it was big to us, and we had as much fun on it as children do today.
