The Old Swing Set

My younger sister Jamie shared a post this week about preschool. It said that structured learning at a young age was not as beneficial as play. I’m glad to know that. I never went to preschool and when I was young, it seemed like all we did was play. And when you have five brothers and sisters, you always have someone to play with. The photo that represents this topic is this photo of all of us siblings on our old swing set in 1965.

As you can see, there was room for all of us at once. Though Rob isn’t on the swing set, he is in the photo playing with our dog Princess. She was a good dog. I remember that she had at least one litter of puppies while we lived there. I used to crawl under the house to gather up all the puppies so we could play with them!

I am the little boy closest to Rob in the photo. I was only four years old at the time, but I have lots of memories from that old house “out in the country.” It was north of Jennings (about half a mile north of I-10) on Highway 26. We rented the house for two years or so from 1963 to 1965. It was preschool for me, Al (to the right of me), and Jamie (to the right of Al). Rob, Jodie (with the baton), and Karen (on the trapeze) had already started their formal education.

That swing set was lots of fun. It was a little scary at times when we were all swinging at once. If too many were on the same side at the same time, it would start to tump. We liked the way it gave us butterflies when we’d go really high. And we always tried to jump just a little bit further than we did the time before. We learned to hang from our knees and our toes on that old swing set! And sometimes we’d Skin the Cat. But don’t worry, we’d always Bring Him Back.

We also had an old trike that we’d ride around. There was a wagon that could carry a couple of kids with armloads of puppies. I remember being scolded not to touch a baby bird that fell from the fig tree. If we did, the mother would reject it. Nobody wanted that. We had a sand pit that was somewhat fun. I seem to remember my mom saying that the cats used it for other purposes than playing. I do remember there being a wasp nest in it. (It was a round brick structure with a ceiling from what I recall. That sounds rather odd now that I say it. It seems like a sand pit should just be a boxed in area with sand in it. What say you, siblings?)

Toward the back of the yard was an old rusty barn. We’d rub our hands on it and make our palms red. It seemed fun at the time. Inside the barn was the wooden framework of an airplane. I don’t think we were allowed to play in there, but we’d peek in from time to time. We had cats and dogs as well as horses and cows. (some with feathers!) It was great fodder for young developing minds.

But all we were really concerned about was having fun.