The Memory of a Playground
When I was in primary school year 3 and 4, I lived with my maternal grandparents because my mother was busy with her work. After finishing the daily homework, almost every day if the weather was good, my grandmother and grandfather would bring me to play in a children playground. It was located in one of the normal public housing estates in Hong Kong, in fact there were a few playgrounds in one estate, so it is easy to found one near any of the residential blocks. Those playgrounds were very similar, but I thought the one which was the nearest to my grandparents' home was the most interesting because the slide was a bit longer and there was two extra swings. I thought it was a higher level playground compared with the others, and that was the reason why it was bustling.
The rush hour in the playground was around 4pm to 6pm in the weekdays. It seemed that all the children in the estate has come there. It was surrounded by two residential blocks, thus every weekday at that period of time, those flats which the windows faced toward the playground would hear the big noise from the playground. There was full of the sounds of screaming, laughing and yelling. But it was normal, no one would ever complain about that. At that time, children did not own computers and there were no smart phones or I pads, so playing in a playground was our most important entertainment.
The floor was laid by square rubber safety mats, which was chequered with red and green colours like a big chessboard. The size was around half of a basketball ground. The sharp yellow slide was set on the right side and a green seesaw, a yellow merry go round and two brown swings were set on the left side. Except the walkway which is next to the slide, another sides were surrounded by trees and benches that the housewife mothers were sitting and chatting under the shade of trees while their children were having fun with the playground equipment. My grandmother usually would chat with some of the housewife mothers on the bench and my grandfather would sit aside and listen to the radio in the pocket of his shirt.
The playground was a social network of the children. I met many new friends there, many new friends who were not from the same school as mine. We usually played hide-and-seek, it is the most excited and interesting game ever. When the catcher were on the floor, I would run to the upper side of the slide, when he/she come up, I slid down. Sometimes I was not fast enough to run. The game would be joined by more and more children as more children had arrived. In the playground, I saw many children were running around. With the sound of heavy breath, their faces turned so red and their front hair blew up because they were running so hard. A child were running around the merry-go-round while holding one hand on the handle for turning it quickly. The children standing on it were laughing happily. There was full of the smell of sweat. At this moment, their mothers would call them to stop for few minutes and drink some water. So do my grandmother.
After 5 o'clock, part of the children had left, they were unwilling to leave because the game wasn't ended and their friends were still there. But of course, they had to listen to their mother. I realized my grandparents spoiled me so much that they would let me play so long until the game end. As the sky was turning darker, children were going home. The playground returned to quiet. I went home with my grandparents and grandmother started to prepare for dinner. When we left the playground, they would always ask me with smile "Did you have fun?". I would answer surly" Yes!! I had." with a sweaty and red face.
I miss the simple life when I was living with my grandparents. Every time when I walked pass the playground, I think of the happy time when I was in childhood and the love of my grandparents. They spent those time in the playground just for my joyful growth. They just want me to be happy. I appreciate so much they have brought me the happy memory of children playground. Nowadays, children are in high stress of the busy schedules of heavy homework, dancing class, math class, music instrument class and so on. The children playground is no longer bustling as before. Some of the equipment were renewed and some of the equipment were even removed. Now it is hard to find a swing or a merry-go-round in most of the playgrounds. Sometimes I think I was lucky to be born in that decade.
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