Recess...

 Today, according to my west coast brother, is American Touch Tag Day. I did not feel compelled to run out and play touch tag today, but the idea did stir some memories.  I attended a small Lutheran school for most of my elementary school years, and one of my most vivid memories of those days is recesses and the playground equipment we were provided with.  I'm sure it was similar to public school playgrounds of the time, but looking back on it, it's lucky we didn't kill each other.  We did some running games like touch tag and Red Rover, but much of our time was unsupervised play on the equipment.  I remember most clearly swinging on the swings, with hard flat seats suspended by chains.  We loved to swing as high as possible and try to go over the bar.  I never quite made that but a couple of my friends did.  We also liked to swing double.  One of us would stand on the swing, feet apart, while the second person sat.  The sitter would push with her feet while the stander would pump.  We could go high and fast that way.  We also had a teeter totter (or see saw if you prefer).  This was great fun unless you were up when your partner decided to hop off, allowing you to crash to the ground.  We had a wonderful fast metal slide with a hump in the middle, which gave one the feeling of flying for a moment.  And finally there was the maypole.  Not the beribboned, flower festooned May Pole that children dance around at festivals.  This maypole had five or six chains hanging down from a rotating top piece.  At the end of each chain was a rectangular heavy metal handle with sharp corners.  Picture a letter H with a bar across the top and bottom.  If you ran fast enough around the maypole, hanging on to one of the handles, you could swing out and up, leaving the ground for long laps around the maypole.  It was better if several children were on it at once.  You could go faster and higher.  The only drawback was if one of the children let go suddenly, the handle they had been holding could swing forward and smack another child in the head.   It's a wonder we survived.  

Here's a weaving/stitchery project I finished recently called, you guessed it, "Recess."