Ranging in length from 16 to 24 feet, each of the seesaws glow from LED augmentation and emit musical sequences as riders bounce up and down. The sounds mingle with the shrieks and whoops of riders....The photos that accompany the NYT article are lovely and romanticize the whole thing, but here's some grittier video which seems to show more what it really looks like:
Hardly any seesaws have been installed in the last 30 years, after federal guidelines began limiting their use in 1981, according to a New York City Department of Parks and Recreation official.
Still, they have a certain appeal.
Sitting on the seesaw is part exercise in trust (often in a complete stranger), part escapism.
January 29, 2020
"I remember when we could just run outside and jump on one of these old rusty things. Now they’re art. It’s the new New York, I guess."
Said one woman quoted in "There Are Glowing Seesaws in Midtown and New Yorkers Are Losing It/A quick pick-me-up (and drop me down!) in the heart of the busy city" (NYT)(some charming moving pictures at the link).
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23 comments:
My son, age four, dislocated his kneecap on one of these death machines.
Hardly any seesaws have been installed in the last 30 years, after federal guidelines began limiting their use in 1981,
I want Bernie, or Warren, or Klobachar, exactly where in the constitution the federal govt gets to power to regulate seesaws?
We rode those death machines on our feet Buwaya Puti. You failed to stimulate your son's physical coordination. It's clumsy dopes like yourself that created the nanny state.
Art? I guess so. It looks like something they might put out as part of a street fair. In that video, it looks like "scheduled fun." Which is to say, not fun.
It's been a while since I've seen a seesaw.
Led Zep stuck part of a tradititional nursery rhyme, "See-saw, Majorie Daw", into their great version of the olde folksong, "Gallows Pole".
@0:50 in the video, one of the see-saws is dormant and covered in yellow police line tape. Wonder what happened?
I want Bernie, or Warren, or Klobachar, exactly where in the constitution the federal govt gets to power to regulate seesaws?
Interstate commerce clause, presumably.
And people wonder why kids are fat.
Let me tell you about the splinter my fourth grade teacher had to pull out of my rear in about 1967.
Once I learned how to really bump people on seesaws, by standing as it came down on my side, and pushing it down the ground and then yanking it back up so the other rider would go flying off if they weren't paying attention, I started to really like see-saws (or, as I would call them, teeter-totters).
Hardly any seesaws have been installed in the last 30 years, after federal guidelines began limiting their use in 1981,
Thank heavens we have squads of beta-male bureaucrats protecting us from the evils of childhood
This is not worth commenting on.
Doh!!
Good old NYC. God, what a shithole! I once loved it.
Now bring back the playground merry-go-round.
I think I called 'em (southwestern Ohio, ca early 60s) teeter-totters, too. Probably could search for that distribution, seesaw versus teeter-totter: geographic? class/income/education?
Only watched the video for enough time as it took to get to the seesaws but I know I now want a cigarette to smoke; stopped 3+ years ago but there are moments of desire still.
My main elementary school (3rd-8th grade) had a seesaw. My first elementary school had a massive monkey bar installation that was designed to be climbed up to the top with no floor at the top, just bars to stand on with a fireman pole to get down on. I guess federal regulations have done away with such things in the last 45 years.
We also had massive (up to 20 foot tall) stainless steel slides, not these little dinky 5 foot plastic ones.
Marc,
In Appalachia Kentucky, we called them teeter-totters, but seesaw wasn't unheard.
"Now bring back the playground merry-go-round."
We used to use dirt bikes to make those things go like mad.
Teeter-totter
Bread & water
Wash your hands in dirty water
If you don't
I don't care
I'll pull down your underwear.
I was taught some weird poems on the playground as a kid.
Kids will find ways to entertain themselves. Teeter-totter early 1900’s.
"My son, age four, dislocated his kneecap on one of these death machines." Why'd you let him on? Mom??
I believe the term SeeSaw comes from the French phrase "Comme si comme ça" meaning loosely 'this way and that way."
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