Start monkeying around

What’s the deal with kids and parallel bars?

These are the parallel bars that I played for hours on while at school. Yup these are the very same parallel bars. We were at the school that day just for a walk and I led Jispa to these bars. I wanted to tell or show Jispa how much fun I had with these bars and wanted to teach her all the tricks I knew. Little did I know that Jispa too played with the parallel bars in her school. She showed me all the tricks she could do and stupidly I had none to teach her then. The daughter is the father of the parent :)

This one is the simple one – hanging like vetal on one bar.

This one is the flip over.

As a child I loved doing all sorts of stuff. Climbing trees at parks was my favorite. Hanging upside down on one the branches and then jumping around. The monkey climbs were my instinctive destination. Go jump on it, climb, hang, swing everything. When my parents and uncles called me a monkey, I took it as a compliment. I was called a monkey for the longest possible time. I loved squeezing into the gaps between the bars. I used to pretend that it was some obstacle course or some war going on or the favorite that kids pretend on these contraptions – the pirate ship! That was the greatest game ever. Almost all my childhood memories of parks are with monkey climbs or slides attached to them. No simple slides and swings for me. That would be the most girlie thing to do I guess.

It’s difficult to do any of that stuff anymore. The body doesn’t bend, the grip isn’t that great and the back is unable to take the load. Oh dear me. How I miss monkeying around. Earlier every obstacle on the road or park or anywhere is an obstacle to jump over or jump on, balance and out. A hedge is nothing but a hurdle. Today I get scared to jump over them. What’s on the other side? The body doesn’t heal as fast and it surely doesn’t want to take any chances with the unknown. I run towards the hedge in the park behind my house and then pull out… no leap. I don’t even land as well after the leap. It hurts my ego but I have no option. It’s better to live to fight another day. Rather – fight another battle… a simpler battle. A puddle to jump over perhaps.

Footnote - as a father now, I wonder - why did the school have a stone floor under the parallel bars. shouldnt they have had a sand pit or even a mud floor? and I wonder why that never did strike or bother me when I was a kid.