For Children Only - Toronto's Adventure Playground (1979)

[@jwc3o2]

we & our our kids came across this place by accident in the late'8os & were totally captivated, spending the rest of the day there climbing around on some pretty questionable structures. but they all stayed standing & noöne got hurt &, inspired, we later banged together a buncha junk wood in our own yard to make one of the tallest structures in the St.Clair/Lansdowne area (only a local pear tree was taller!). it was forced down, of course, but we had it up a coupla years &'ve since built 3 more for fun, the most recent on an island in the Ottawa River. it's been up almost 6 years now & is still changing. great to see this: there're some very real "parallel moments" in here & it's a treat to see how well guided their self-motivations were. great firepit!

[@cyrex686]

Only got to go there once or twice when I was in Phoenix school. One of my best childhood experiences. Hoping to bring this concept back.

[@OofusTwillip]

Letting kids use real tools and real wood & metal to build whatever they like, with no safety harnesses, helmets, boots, or goggles. Can you imagine what would happen if anyone even *suggested* this today? How did any of us kids of that generation survive?

[@jstreutker]

No safety sissies here! Also, that footage seems to me to be from earlier in the 70s than 1979 as stated in the title.

[@kat4444444444]

I love this idea!!! I say put out a sign that says « Play at Own Risk » and it could still happen today!

[@johnjbreton]

That's not how liability works, especially with minors, lol

[@BikingWIthPanda]

@@johnjbreton in Canada, it is! check the supreme court decision from 2015 on the Bruce mountain bike skills park. If a single entrance forces everyone past adequate signage, it's fine.

[@DrRestezi]

Toronto in its Dickensian wonder circa 1979.

[@brihar7330]

That was a good idea.

[@PrincessMylow]

I was born right around the time they opened so I was started go around the time they were closing down. This video must have been from when they first opened because we didn't have to take down anything we built. We went in for what ever amount of time we wanted to for 2 hours or even all day sometimes. We could build onto other kids forts or build new ones. Sometimes we just went in to play in the forts already built. It was fairly cheap to spent a day in the play yard. I understand your statement about safety gear should be required. They started implementing safety gear slowly when I was going but they closed down. Remember we were latchkey kids and had to come home when the street lights came on back then. They would take our kids away if we let our kids do that now. This was an amazing place to learn about general wood working and building skills. It was a life skills place that we all need and don't get growing up in the 2000. This place is a very important and wonderful childhood memory of mine I will never forget even though I was so young.