Cold War Playing Equipment is meant to foster children's curiosity and excitement about the Space Race. It was installed during the Cold War in both communist and capitalist countries.
Video Cold War playground equipment
United States
In 1959, Popular Mechanics wrote that Kiwanis Club in Ontario, California was "in tune with time" when setting up a three-story rocket at a local playground.
Around 1962, a 26ft (7.9m) moon rocket was installed in a playground in Calwa, California. The "Calwa Rocket" still stands in the park "as a symbol of affection from the previous time", and is designated as a heritage property by 2013.
The "space-age shift" in the design of the playground is depicted in the 1963 issue of Life magazine , featuring Fidel Castro on its cover. A series of tree trunks installed in the Kansas City, Missouri park can lead to "any game imaginative children might think of," writes Life, including the "ICBM array on the launch pad".
In 1963, Philadelphia has installed 160 playgrounds in space, featuring satellites, rockets and submarines.
Richardson, Texas installed an "atomic playground" in 1965, with radar towers, Saturn climbers, submarines, radar platters, planetary climbers, and high-level rocket ships. When the city tried to remove the item in 2008, it met with local opposition. A task force set up to investigate the dismissal writes that "as children grow and develop, their playgrounds must evolve to meet the ever-changing needs and interests of play". Rocket ships have "very little play value," and have "dangerous conditions that pose a great danger to little children."
Two companies were recorded for their military and space-themed play equipment: Miracle Equipment Company from Grinnell, Iowa, and Jamison Fantasy Equipment of Los Angeles, California, which produced moon rockets, nautilus submarines, and aerospace.
Writer Fraser MacDonald writes "nuclear weapons made sense, and can be moved to, domestic context" through children's toys and playground equipment featuring Cold War symbols.
Maps Cold War playground equipment
Eastern Block
Playgrounds in the Soviet Union are also designed to stimulate children's excitement about space, as this is an ideology supported throughout the communist state. Eastern Europe "follows the movement of the Soviet playground and is under the influence of the Cold War mode."
The success of the Soviet space program is celebrated through monuments, parks and museums. Still today in the village of Baikonur, Kazakhstan, where Yuri Gagarin was launched into orbit in 1961, rocket-shaped play equipment and other mementos of Soviet space exploration spread around the village.
Playing equipment - including rockets - is usually mass-produced in large factories that tend to follow repetitive designs and patterns. As a result, the playground "from Eastern Europe to the Russian Pacific Coast" often features identical equipment, with "brutal construction" and "the use of generous tires".
Gallery
References
Further reading
- Orchowski, Lauren. Rocket Science , 2010. A collection of Cold War-era rocket-plays was photographed throughout North America from 2004 to 2010.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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