If you are a kid, six years or older, and you live in the neighborhood, you can really get a kick at one of the local playgrounds. Inside the park, after some flowers and close to a kindergarten, stands a 3 story high structure, with two curly slides, comparable to nothing I saw outside a paid amusement park. It dominates the other slides around by a factor to two or three to one. It is the castle of the park, the other equipment look really small, banal close to it.

It is also very well maintained, as it was under renovation for some months a while ago. Looking from the outside, I glimpse something that looks like an emergency lever. It lacks a lift though, and given the height, it deserves it.

It strikes me that I rarely see kids playing in it. When I cross the park in the morning, the children are really to small to try a 3-story slide. Even if a more adventurous toddler gets close to it, a caring parent or a nurse stops the idea quickly. When it happens that I can pass by in the afternoon, the kids coming out of the school, in their tens, twelves or thirteens years old stay around looking at the huge slide with a condescending look, pitying the small kids that can still amuse themselves with such a thing.

I guess one have to be six or seven years old to really enjoy it. The kid in question would have to be older than six, have the courage, an approving parent and no social pressure against having one or two rides. As I lay the criteria on paper, I realize that the I fit perfectly in.

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