When it comes to the playgrounds of the past, a lot of the equipment was just hunks of metal that they shaped into something kids can play on. Just look at this with a hole in the middle, does anyone even know what this is?

If you’re old enough to remember witch’s hats on playgrounds, then you’ve definitely played on your fair share of janky ones. Look at that thing, it doesn’t even look like something children should go near, let alone play on.

Animal swings are the best in my opinion. I can remember going to the park and always picking my favorite giraffe to swing on. Oh how the time flies, those were the days

Back in the day, it was like anything that spun was a good fit for a kid’s playground. It didn’t even matter how potentially dangerous the spinning equipment was, they just knew how much kids love to be dizzy.

When it comes to playground nostalgia, a tire swing always brings back those wonderful memories…Unless you were the kid who flew off of one that is, then it probably brings up some PTSD.

Monkey bars are another piece of old playground equipment that brings up awesome, as well as terrifying memories for people. All it took was a little slip of the fingers, and down you went. These curved ones were even worse because they encouraged you to climb over the top and it didn’t also go so well.

Every kid loved those floating bicycles, and they were a blast until it got going too fast throwing you off. This one is out of commission, but it still actually looks pretty good given the circumstances.

This is one I’ve never seen before, but due to the fact that it’s potentially dangerous, it made our list. I guess you’re supposed to hold on to the top part while running on the barrel? Go ahead, you first, let me know how that turns out for you.

Scary slides from back in the day come in all shapes and sizes, and with some of them, it’s the way they look that makes them scary. This monster slide doesn’t look that fast, but I’m quite sure it scared the heck out of a lot of toddlers.

When it comes to dangerous playground equipment from the past, metal steps were a big part of them. All it took was a tiny slip of the foot, and you’d hit your shins and be screaming in pain. Good luck going on those while wet, trust me, don’t even try it.

Small metal slides like this are deceiving, what could go wrong right? Wrong! A little metal slide may look like it’s harmless but go on that thing when it’s hot outside and you’ll have 3rd-degree burns on your bum.

Swinging on the same swing as your best friend, was like a right of passage for kids. You didn’t think about how dangerous it could be, it was too fun to care. I love the caption on this one: “Back in the day before concerns with safety had stripped kids of their independence, adventure, and discovery.

Every kid has at least attempted to do some double-dutch jump roping, but some of us weren’t very good at it. If you were really bad like me, the rope would catch your feet and you’d go tumbling down.

In recent years, people have been going viral for pulling these things with dirt bikes until someone flies off, but they weren’t the first daredevils on the merry-go-round. Back in the day, we’d skin on these till we puked, and then get on and spin some more. They made you so dizzy, that flying off of them was a regular occurrence.

We’ve already discussed the burn factor that these metal slides come with, but when they’re high it just adds an extra layer of danger. Then you add in the long line of kids waiting for their turn, and someone’s bound to fall off the top.

Just looking at this brings back some scary memories, and it’s easy to see why. As a kid, of course you wanted to climb to the top, but once you got up there it was twice as frightening to come down. If you lost your nerve and fell, you’d hit all the bars on the way down. I should know, I did it more than once.

Here is another that’s dangerous for its height, but they’re so darn fun to play one. Unlike the caged monkey bars, if you fell through after making it to the top you didn’t hit anything on the way down. It was still dangerous to fall, but nowhere as painful.

This picture cracked me up, and also made me think of all the kids who’ve broken bones on teeter-totters. The golden rule on these things was to never get on with someone who weighed more than you, even if it was just by a little bit. If you did, you’d usually get launched right off and straight up into the air.

Rope swings are so fun, even just looking at one makes you want to swing into the river. This one isn’t a playground, but they’ve brought so much pain, as well as happiness to kids for as long as ropes have been around. So needless to say, it made the list.

I have seen one of these and years, and really they serve no purpose except walking on them for as long as you can to see who has the most balance. They’re also pretty fun to jump off of when you’re only 3 feet tall.

Here’s one that you don’t see a lot, and you probably wouldn’t see on a playground today. Once you get running on the circular part, you just better not lose your footing. Also, kids must love this thing, just look how worn out the bar you hold on to is.

This group swing from back in the day just looks scary, can you imagine if kids just started flying off of it? I’m sure that happened back then, and probably more than once.

The idea of a maypole is to grab on as tight as you can, while you swing around at high velocities. If you’re lucky, it won’t get going to fast for you too hold on, but it doesn’t always work that way

Here’s another caged monkey bar, but this one actually has kids playing on it. The awesome thing about this picture, is that it really highlights just how fearless kids are. Even when they fall, they just bounce right back up and climb again.

This one isn’t old, but it made our list for its resemblance to the older playground equipment. And if it looks kind of like the old stuff, that can only mean one thing…It hurts to fall off of!

This one is even higher than the last one, which makes it way more exhilarating but a little less ideal to fall off of. It looks like it’s been there for quite some time, and we’re sure it won’t be going anywhere soon. No way, kids love these things way too much.

This is a new version of an old piece of playground equipment, and they’re loads of fun to play on. Just make sure you got a good grip when you get to the top, or else you’ll be taking the fast way down.

Teeter-totters are seriously a great time, but it can depend on the one you’re playing on, and who you’re teetering with. This wood one would be a nightmare, especially because you’d be picking out splinters afterward.

This one just made the list for how hilarious it is, and the rare piece of playground equipment these teenagers ruined. I’ve never seen anything like it, but I can imagine how fun that would be as a kid. Maybe these guys were just practicing for their driving test, doubt it though.

What an endearing video, good on this guy for treating his pooch just like a human. Also, we couldn’t help but notice that his awesome merry-go-round actually has seats. On second thought, I feel like that would make it easier to fall off.

Remember these things? What an awesome experience as a kid, and the good thing is they’re still around. That’s probably because they’re completely safe, unlike much of the other stuff from the past.

This Reddit caption reads: “Are we the only country that thinks old farm equipment makes an adequate playground?” The answer is probably not, it’s actually a really good idea for upcycling an old tractor. Plus, I’m sure it brings a lot of kids joy, and what could be better than that?

This one isn’t an old set of monkey bars but made the list because it will make you laugh out loud. In the post, they point out that the wear and tear on the monkey bars are way worse at the front. That just goes to show how hard monkey bars are for kids.

Until now, we’ve only explained to you what spinning too fast on playground equipment does to you. So, we thought we’d show you firsthand what we’re talking about. Does that look fun to you? Actually, kind of.

Dangerous playground equipment seems to have some common threads, and spinny stuff seems to be one of them. This one may not be old, but it might as well be.

Here’s another metal slide, and there’s a reason we’ve put more than one. We just can’t stress enough how much fun these we’re, but also the damage they could do to you in the blink of an eye. Sitting in the sun like that, this one’s ready to do some burning.

Here’s an old swing that allows kids to pile on for the fun, just better make sure the sides have even weight or everyone’s going down. Let’s be real, that’s not something kids usually think about.

Tires have many uses, and a lot of them are for having fun. They don’t just make good tire swings, these little jumping tires look like loads of fun! The huge smile on these kids’ faces proves it. The key is that they have adult supervision – we didn’t!

As a kid, who wouldn’t want to go down a rocket ship slide? Don’t let it fool you though, it’s still a metal slide that’s going to bake in the sun. That really is super cool though, I wonder when it was built?

The old playground equipment that we used to have fun on is hilarious sometimes, and this two-way staircase falls into that category. Like what’s the point of this one, just something you can run on I guess.

Here’s an incredible piece of playground equipment from the 70s, and it’s finally one that doesn’t put kids in danger. I’ve never actually seen one of these before, but when I did, it totally blew my mind.

Chain ladders have been around since playgrounds were created, and they have good reason to still be around today. For one, they’re super fun, and for two, they’re risky enough to get the adrenaline pumping.

Back in the day, they didn’t just have scary metal slides. Nope, they actually had much more terrifying ones. Just look at this picture, I’d be scared to go down that even as an adult. How do you slow yourself down at the bottom? The simple answer, you don’t.

Here’s another double-whammy. You’ve got the climbing caterpillar, with the metal slide in the background. Both look ridiculously funny but are deceptively dangerous. Good thing kids are like rubber, if adults tried to play on these pieces of equipment, we’d be toast.

Kids love climbing stuff, and it doesn’t really matter what it is. Just look at this piece of old playground equipment for the 70s and 80s, can you tell what it is? Nope, but it has holes and you can climb it, so kids love it.

These old seesaw horses from the 70s have got to be antiques, and they look super fun to ride. They even have another animal to ride in the background, is that a chicken I see back there?

These climbing ladders from the old days go way too high for kids to be climbing, one fall from the top and you’re looking at a broken bone for sure. Even so, they all look eager to get their turn to climb. What can we say, kids will be kids.

Look at this giant tire swing from back in the day, there’s barely any room to sit or stand on it. That didn’t stop these kids from taking it as high as it could go, and who cares about the potential consequences. When you’re a kid you can get away with that, when you get older, not so much.

Some of these photos go back even farther than the 60s and 70s. If you thought you had it bad because of a hot slide, imagine saying “hey mom, look at this” before falling on your head from that height!

Yikes.

Wood, metal, and gravel – THAT’S what playgrounds were made of.

If you were lucky, in the 90s you got some softer material, but only in the nice parts of town.

There’s not much better than old-school swing when it comes to playground equipment, and these are about as old school as they get. Even so, you’d be surprised how high you can get on swings like this.

Four things really make kids go wild at playgrounds; swings, slides, tunnels, and stuff you can climb. So when you combine two of those, it makes for a great piece of playground equipment. Now, if they’d just combine a slide and swing somehow…

Here’s a perfect example of why some old playground equipment was extremely dangerous, and we’re sure that kid got right back up to climb again. Then, again, maybe he sat out for while. That’s really high. Who decided to build this so high, and what were they thinking?

This park looks like it hardly gets used anymore, but it’s got a pretty awesome-looking floating bicycle that’s perfectly good. Does park equipment get lonely? If so, someone needs to go and give that thing a ride – just don’t fall in the gravel, since that stuff gets embedded in your skin pretty well from what we remember!

This picture has two of our favorite playground oldies, and they both still look to be in decent shape. So what’s the plan here, get dizzy and go slide, or slide and then go get dizzy. The latter of those definitely seems like the smarter option.

This wooden playground has all the makings for being. painful, but fantastic time. It’s huge – what kid wouldn’t wasn’t to play in that? Despite the splinters, we kept going back for more.

A park wouldn’t be a park without the baby swings, and this one has some brilliant ones. I like how they’re not quite as tight as the regular plastic ones, kids always get stuck in those. Usually, it’s the older kids though, they just love trying to squeeze into them.

This playground from back in the day looks amazing, and I love how one of the kids is just sitting on top of the monkey bars all nonchalantly. I also have to point out how much better they dressed back then, fashion has taken an odd turn.

This massive slide twists around, and around, and around, and around. Forget being a kid, I’m an adult and I want to ride this one! It looks more like something you’d see at a water park, only you don’t have the water to break your fall – usually, you got gravel.

Here’s another standup swing, only this time it looks like much younger kids who are dying through the air. It’s hilarious how the parents aren’t even concerned, no days you’d have people begging to get their kids down.