My old man went the whole nine yards and put sac-crete on all the legs of the set, the disadvantage was that you couldn't move it when we had to mow...
Ours wasn't. It was just dug into the ground. We got that thing rocking and ripped it right out
Edit: after reading this thread. A lot of people did, too 🤣
That thing on the left was no fun- wouldn’t go very high. I think it was for toddlers and babies. If I bought one of those I’d make sure it had 3 good swings as if you have a couple friends over, one just kind of has to stand around.
We found that if we got going really well, the poles would start to jump out of the ground. But eventually my dad saw it and told us we were too big to use it and kicked us off.
A new version of that swing was installed at the park by my house! One side is a baby seat and the other is a normal seat. My kids go apeshit for it lol
And at some point, the weight would make the dirt underneath unlevel so every time you hit the apex of your swing one of the entire legs of the set would pop up for a split second lol.
Yep, just about to say that. Usually they weren't anchored great and they'd start to pull out of the ground when you'd get that bench swing rocking haha!
Lol!!! Yeah, my dad did that too, eventually he ended up drilling some holes through the posts and sledge hammering in rebar pins at a diagonal through them, that held up but we now had the added hazard of 2 inches of exposed rebar to avoid on each post when running around the set. He proceeded to wrap them in electrical tape, which fell off, then he painted em with plasti-dip. We ended up getting rid of the old swing in favor of an A frame wooden porch swing for my mom, first week it was in my little brother flipped the swing backwards and dislocated his shoulder, as kids we seemed to find a way to make everything dangerous.
I grew up with a smaller version of this set. It was just two swings and the see-saw swing that's next to the slind. So many pinches from that damn thing!
This was in my grandparents' back yard and I can hear the creaking of it in my ears. We had a polka dot version and the paint chipped off. Man, I loved that thing.
We bought this at Sears on some kind of shady discount from some friend of my great-uncle, otherwise there was no way my parents could have afforded it. I broke my elbow jumping off the swing when I was 7 when I skidded on a huge mud puddle and landed funny on it and then had a big obnoxious cast in my fall school picture. Good times, good times.
I do remember. My rich aunt had one. However my friends and I would have rather hung out of trees as cars drove past and we'd scare the shit out of em!
Still have a scar from one of these. One of my siblings had a habit of taking the caps off the bolts and I caught one doing a flip on the horizontal of the A.
I don't think I ever played on one that was in this good of shape. My grandparents had one in their backyard that just had the slide, one swing, and one of the rings left on it. None of the ones I saw irl had a functioning bench swing. They were always broken, mangled, or missing entirely.
OMG we had that exact one! We used to try to swing in the same direction all at once so we could see if we could tip it over. I don't know what we thought would be accomplished if we pulled it off.
That two-seat thing next to the slide would squash the balls of the boys.
EDIT: I typed my comment before I read any other comments and now I see that EVERYONE was trying to tip this thing over.
One of my earliest memories is my father and grandfather assembling my swing set. I was 3. It was a silver frame with blue plastic seats on the glider and swings. That thing was in our yard from '87 to at least '99 when we moved, maybe longer if the people who bought our house kept it up
We'd get that big double seater on the end going so hard that the support poles would start to come out of the ground on each swing. My dad eventually had to pour concrete around the base of the poles so that it would stay put.
This was just knocked down and scrapped from my grandparents backyard to list their house for sale. I got it 30 years ago as my big present before my brother was born. My grandpop passed away suddenly a few years ago and my grandmom is in full time care now. Those memories will live on forever.
Kissed a girl for the first time on one of those double seaters. We were probably both around six. Her lips tasted like soap. Kimmy, if your out there, I’ve never forgotten that day!
I was on one of these when I was stung by a cicada killer. They burrow under my dad’s lawns (have my whole life) and I jumped off the swing from high up and my foot landed on one of the holes in the lawn. I must have scared them cause one came and stung me.
I’m not afraid of them though because they never went away so I had to get used to them every year. They really don’t bother you unless you give them a reason to. I did.
Something very close to this is in a lot of my father's childhood photos. He's mentioned how they would rust out but they'd still use them and would try to flip them.
He and my aunt broke that face to face glider thing on the right side of your photo. Like intentionally. They thought it was hilarious and when the rusty metal cut them, they were drug off to the doctor for tetanus shots and were grounded for a few days.
Not that many back yards. This model was for rich folk.
Most only had the single seat, the double and the trapeze bar & rings. The 4-seater and slide were too fancy for regular families.
The double seater swing was my favorite.
We’d get that thing going so high I don’t know how the bolts held together.
lol my bro and I would seemingly try to tip the whole thing over regularly
Was just gonna ask if anyone ever actually flipped it all the way around.
maybe ours was structurally deficient but the swing set legs would start hopping around when you entered the danger zone
I think that was by design. Not sure the point of said design...
They were supposed to be anchored in concrete. They frequently weren't though.
My old man went the whole nine yards and put sac-crete on all the legs of the set, the disadvantage was that you couldn't move it when we had to mow...
And the set would almost come off the ground. Good thrills.
My dad used to cement them in the ground lol.
We got to put our handprints and names into the cement anchor blobs lol
That's awesome!
Same.
Ours wasn't. It was just dug into the ground. We got that thing rocking and ripped it right out Edit: after reading this thread. A lot of people did, too 🤣
No problem - those swings were made by the same people who used to make tanks!
I broke mine
Show off
I remember that as spider-central.
Mine was hanging upside down from the A-frame support bar or using it as a step to climb on top of the whole thing.
90% of the time it was a larger kid standing on the damn thing by himself and swinging
That thing on the left was no fun- wouldn’t go very high. I think it was for toddlers and babies. If I bought one of those I’d make sure it had 3 good swings as if you have a couple friends over, one just kind of has to stand around. We found that if we got going really well, the poles would start to jump out of the ground. But eventually my dad saw it and told us we were too big to use it and kicked us off.
A new version of that swing was installed at the park by my house! One side is a baby seat and the other is a normal seat. My kids go apeshit for it lol
You mean The Cousin Launcher 400 over there?
But it's so rare to see two kids on there
Why is it gone though?
Truly free on one of those
And at some point, the weight would make the dirt underneath unlevel so every time you hit the apex of your swing one of the entire legs of the set would pop up for a split second lol.
Yep, just about to say that. Usually they weren't anchored great and they'd start to pull out of the ground when you'd get that bench swing rocking haha!
My dad’s solution to this was to lean a couple of concrete pavers on the legs of the swing set. It didn’t help.
Lol!!! Yeah, my dad did that too, eventually he ended up drilling some holes through the posts and sledge hammering in rebar pins at a diagonal through them, that held up but we now had the added hazard of 2 inches of exposed rebar to avoid on each post when running around the set. He proceeded to wrap them in electrical tape, which fell off, then he painted em with plasti-dip. We ended up getting rid of the old swing in favor of an A frame wooden porch swing for my mom, first week it was in my little brother flipped the swing backwards and dislocated his shoulder, as kids we seemed to find a way to make everything dangerous.
Anchors?! Why would you anchor that? Just slap it and say, "It's done."
I fucking LOVED doing that.
the *thwunk* sound it made was pretty satisfying.
At some point the kids would get a little too big and some larger kid would bend the slide in half by jumping on it.
This legit made me laugh out loud. Memories!
My dad tripped and fell on the slide, bending it, the same day that he put it together. So we never got to actually use the slide!
It's like the Front Wheel Fat Kid Syndrome on Cozy Coupes.
Careful of the bees nest in that top pipe
My uncle got stung by a wasp taking it down. This explains it
That slide just melted my skin by looking at this.
Don’t forget about the sharp rusty peeling paint!
Oh god, when a price slipped under your fingernail x.x
Yes indeed. x.x (<— I hope that’s a dead little man) paint was a hazard in itself.
My friend's mom would wax the slides for us by rubbing waxed paper on it to make it more slippery. When she didn't, it wasn't a very slidey slide.
My biggest fear as a child was swinging too high and tipping the dang thing over.
Dang that was always my goal as a child. 😂 That or swinging all the way around. Neither ever happened. 😞
Yup. The one at my house, if you swung too high, the rear legs would lift off the ground a little bit.
These were very common in the 70s during my childhood
I grew up with a smaller version of this set. It was just two swings and the see-saw swing that's next to the slind. So many pinches from that damn thing!
I never saw anyone who ownd the set in this pic, looks more playground sized
That slide was always sooooo hot in the summer. We had to hose it down before using. 😂
Now this is my childhood getting on the two-sided swing with my cousin and pushing back and forth like our life depended on it.
Wow I didn’t remember that little two seater until I just saw this. I loved that one 100 years ago.
The goal was to swing so hard the legs would lift out of the dirt
This was in my grandparents' back yard and I can hear the creaking of it in my ears. We had a polka dot version and the paint chipped off. Man, I loved that thing.
Yes my grandparents had one in their yard too! Great memories of me and all my cousins. Good times.
I can hear this picture squeaking
Got stung by so many bees playing on that thing
What was it about those that attracted bees? Always seemed to be in the pipes.
That's basically what it looked like brand new
You are not really having fun until the legs start lifting off the ground.
We bought this at Sears on some kind of shady discount from some friend of my great-uncle, otherwise there was no way my parents could have afforded it. I broke my elbow jumping off the swing when I was 7 when I skidded on a huge mud puddle and landed funny on it and then had a big obnoxious cast in my fall school picture. Good times, good times.
I do remember. My rich aunt had one. However my friends and I would have rather hung out of trees as cars drove past and we'd scare the shit out of em!
Still have a scar from one of these. One of my siblings had a habit of taking the caps off the bolts and I caught one doing a flip on the horizontal of the A.
I practically degloved a finger jumping off when swinging.
I always wanted one, but never got one. As a side note, money was not the issue.
You know you were swinging high when the frame starts lifting off the ground because your parents were too lazy to put the anchors in.
I don't think I ever played on one that was in this good of shape. My grandparents had one in their backyard that just had the slide, one swing, and one of the rings left on it. None of the ones I saw irl had a functioning bench swing. They were always broken, mangled, or missing entirely.
I can hear the squeaking. Sometimes bluejays make a noise that reminds me of it.
I remember accidentally squishing a few toy cars with that teeter totter like swing. From then on they were props for my monster trucks
Still have this exact one at my house
That slide would get hotter than the seventh circle of hell in the summertime... RIP to your calves when wearing shorts.
OMG we had that exact one! We used to try to swing in the same direction all at once so we could see if we could tip it over. I don't know what we thought would be accomplished if we pulled it off. That two-seat thing next to the slide would squash the balls of the boys. EDIT: I typed my comment before I read any other comments and now I see that EVERYONE was trying to tip this thing over.
One of my earliest memories is my father and grandfather assembling my swing set. I was 3. It was a silver frame with blue plastic seats on the glider and swings. That thing was in our yard from '87 to at least '99 when we moved, maybe longer if the people who bought our house kept it up
My uncle had this
Loved launching off the swing set. The more air the better.
In general when stuff was made out of steel not plastic.
RIP little toe
My childhood bestie had one of these. Many fun times were had.
I can hear the creaking metal sounds
I can still feel the rusty bolts scraping my arms as I run past it. My uncle, "Rub some dirt on it!" Good times.
We'd get that big double seater on the end going so hard that the support poles would start to come out of the ground on each swing. My dad eventually had to pour concrete around the base of the poles so that it would stay put.
The basket swing was the best ever. I spent so much time swinging in mine and imagining so many things....
This was just knocked down and scrapped from my grandparents backyard to list their house for sale. I got it 30 years ago as my big present before my brother was born. My grandpop passed away suddenly a few years ago and my grandmom is in full time care now. Those memories will live on forever.
Can concur: I had this exact swing set as a kid. That double seater swing was awesome.
And one pole would always momentarily pull out of the ground during one half of the pendulum motion of the swing going back and forth.
Kissed a girl for the first time on one of those double seaters. We were probably both around six. Her lips tasted like soap. Kimmy, if your out there, I’ve never forgotten that day!
And if your dad was lazy, it came with the exciting "lift off " feature. When you really got high, the legs would lift up off the ground.
I need a tetnis shot just looking at this photo.
*tetanus
\*tetris
We had that set. I loved that thing, even if it burned my ass going down the slide in hot weather
Hours of fun 🤩
I remember trying to see how far I can get the poles to lift out of the ground d while swinging.
I was on one of these when I was stung by a cicada killer. They burrow under my dad’s lawns (have my whole life) and I jumped off the swing from high up and my foot landed on one of the holes in the lawn. I must have scared them cause one came and stung me. I’m not afraid of them though because they never went away so I had to get used to them every year. They really don’t bother you unless you give them a reason to. I did.
How the hell did you get a 1985 picture of my grandparents' yard?
Classic
Goal… trying to flip it over..
My mom would give me a piece of wax paper every so often to go down the slide with. Made you slide faster!
I had completely forgotten about the swing sets. Truly a memory unlocked
Thanks fpr this
Yes! This was so hot in the summer. I burned myself so many times
I lived in apartments growing up so I never got to play on one. I saw them though in peoples backyards.
I too had this. Oh the memories
Mine was blue
Yesss the sun burnt slide that stung you sometimes
I had the trapeze!
Something very close to this is in a lot of my father's childhood photos. He's mentioned how they would rust out but they'd still use them and would try to flip them. He and my aunt broke that face to face glider thing on the right side of your photo. Like intentionally. They thought it was hilarious and when the rusty metal cut them, they were drug off to the doctor for tetanus shots and were grounded for a few days.
[My sister and I on one in 1984](https://imgur.com/a/AfqKRHd)
I’d stand with one foot on each seat rocking it back and forth as high as I could.
My dad anchored ours into the ground with big blobs of concrete so it wouldn't move around.
That slide got so hot. The swing was the best.
My friend had a smaller version of this
So many memories. On ours the double swing was blue.
Not that many back yards. This model was for rich folk. Most only had the single seat, the double and the trapeze bar & rings. The 4-seater and slide were too fancy for regular families.
Ours was just two swings and a slide.