This post was last modified: Jul 6, 2022 at 5:01 AM by Fun With Despair.

As I walked one night into that familiar darkness, I found myself in place unknown to me. The smell of rust carried through the air, lending the small wooded park a sharp, metallic edge. The air, meanwhile, was chilly for a summer's night, thick with the aftereffects of one of many rainstorms that pummeled the area over the past month. In the distance... a structure loomed, an ominous frame giving shape to the formless shadows surrounding me.

Alright I won't beat around the bush anymore we both know why I'm here, it's a playground.

I said years ago that the "Town Park" looked like Silent Hill, but this one has it beat for sure. Rusty metal and old wood everywhere, this playground has certainly seen better days and it is certainly more than a little creepy. Wooden playgrounds are a rarity though, and something that I am indeed very nostalgic for conceptually. Chances are the reason for said rarity is because they're simply less modular than the modern metal and plastic structures, and therefore harder to meaningfully repair. Usually when a wooden playground goes south, it just gets ripped down and replaced.

This place is still open though, despite the fact that it's... a bit scary.

When you approach this playground, one of the first things you'll see is this little wooden shack with some benches. A nice little shaded area by day, it becomes the sort of place where it feels like either a ghost, a crackhead, or (worst of all) a crackhead ghost is hunkering down and waiting to pop out at me by night. My phone camera, you see, is much better at low light photography than my eyes are, and while most of these shots look fairly decent, I could not see shit even with the phone's flashlight on, meaning I had to navigate this place like I was playing Fatal Frame.

Thankfully(?) it doesn't have much around the perimeter, so I can get into the actual attractions (and out of here) pretty quickly.

First up, we're bringing back another dead-and-buried feature back to life: this sliding rail thing you hang onto. Yeah, it's been a while since one of these popped up, similar to the swings earlier in that its a common feature that's mostly been absent. Despite the fact that it is very old and rusty, whatever ghoul haunts this place seems to keep it well oiled, and it smoothly glides from one end to the other when you hang on.

Also of note are the two glowing pinpricks in the upper corner of the photo that I did not edit in. I tell myself that they are simply the lights of houses in the distance, but that's really just some cope to ease my soul.

Right next to the glide rail is this chain ladder for getting onto the playground. It has a good wobble to it, typical of chain ladders, and is at enough of a horizontal angle to where its relative closeness to the ground doesn't really drag it down too much, as there's still a degree of "challenge" to this thing I guess. Every wooden playground ever made has pretty much this exact template for a chain ladder I think, so it's nothing particularly special. At least the chains are rusty, matching the aesthetic.

On the other side of the playground, you have some stairs too, and you know what? I'm okay with these. Yeah, they are just stairs, nothing special here, but I think the wooden construction of them adds some soul that the usual stairs do not. They're big enough to sit on comfortably too, and they even creak ominously as you ascend, altering whatever lurks in the dark below.

Up the chain ladder, you'll find this fireman's pole. Surprisingly, it's not rusty, and is not bad. Because it doesn't have any paint or anything, there's no real chance of injuring yourself by scraping your hands on it. It's not very tall mind you, and it's not exactly slippery either, but I've been burned (literally) by fireman's poles before, so I ain't gonna complain about this one. Don't know what's up with those brightly colored panels on either end though. They're the only colorful aspect of the playground at all, so they stick out as a bit odd.

There's also this little slide. Well, slides (plural) anyway. There's one on either end of the playground, and they are 1:1 exactly the same so I only photographed one. They are too small to give a very interesting review to, as going down them lasts less then a second, but they're... fine. In a void, at least. As a whole, it is immensely disappointing as always when two slides are exactly the same on a playground. Could've been a lot better if there was a second, bigger slide at least.

Thankfully, the wobbly bridge comes to the rescue. I love a classic wooden playground wobbly bridge, and this is no exception. A good amount of jiggle when you walk on it, and some satisfying sound effects. The meme wheel lurks ominously on the other side, and is every bit as monstrous as you'd expect from this place. Rusted, creaky, and overlooking that creepy shack in the distance, it's at least the... scariest meme wheel I've run into. Creaks aside though, it spins well enough, and being a wooden playground, it would allow you to nicely roleplay a pirate ship once you get over your nightmares.

Next to the wobbly bridge are these swinging monkeybar things that hang down. I don't know the actual name for these but they're also a common feature on older playgrounds. Combined with the wobbly bridge, you could have a great "jungle" thing going on here with vines and a rickety bridge at least. It's fun to swing around on these, and they're a good alternate crossing method along with the bridge and the sliding rail. Actually, it's sort of nice having three ways to fuck off across the playground, I'll admit.

And... that's all folks.

While in its current state and in the dead of night it is pretty creepy, this place is probably pretty aesthetically nice in the daytime, especially with all the trees around. I however did not visit it in the daytime and therefore it is quite horrifying. That being said, nothing about this place really stands out at all besides the nostalgic, traditional wooden build. Despite the fact that it is sort of run down though, nothing here is outright horrible either.

It would probably be a nice place to hang out at as a kid, with lots of places to sit and get from one end to the other without running into other people, but there's nothing to really do on either end, with both of the slides being mediocre and the fireman's pole being just okay. I can't bring myself to hate this place at all though. It's got a vibe and a certain feel to it that I find fairly compelling in spite of everything bland about the actual attractions.

In the end, I am mixed here. Love a good spooky playground, don't love much else. As a result, I'll give it a middling...

5/10

I read this title and thought to myself 'Fwd goes to Silent Hill'

Thread didn't disappoint.

immaculate vibes

You can tell that's a quality build. Someone put it up in 1987 and it has required $30 of maintenance since then. Not pretty but it'll be around after we're dead.

This place is a little underwhelming and definitely hasn't been cared for since it was made, but I'm shocked that mostly everything still works all right despite that. Like that meme wheel, when I saw it I expected it to be fused in place, but nope, apparently it still spins okay. What the fuck.

The wood build is personally not very appealing to me BUT it is unique and probably does look neat in the daytime. It adds to the creepiness at night here for sure.

Shoutout to these kinds of wooden monstrosities. If you aren't covered in splinters and metal slide burns after playing, you didn't really play at all