Playgrounds fun for adults, too

By: Jonah Magar Posted: 07/29/08 9:01pm

I have at least five mosquito bites on my right foot alone from an excursion I took with a friend Friday night. They itch so horribly, I can’t wear socks and shoes, but anyone reading this knows how a mosquito bite feels: They’re part of the human experience nearly everyone has shared.

Which brings me to another thing nearly everyone has experience with: playgrounds. It occurred to me a couple of weeks ago that the structures — particularly big wooden ones with monkey bars and little rope courses and slides — are more fun than they probably should be. For adults.

Here in East Lansing, there’s such an elaborate construction in John M. Patriarche Park, which I swear was lifted straight from my hometown of Livonia, rearranged and dropped into the place it stands at Alton Road and E. Saginaw Street, complete with woodchips and oversized tractor tires.

Except this one is better. And not just because we ran into other college kids there and proceeded to explore the wooden jungle in the dark.

It came up in conversation that night that this town seems to be fantastic until you hit the five-year mark of residency, at which point you’ll hate life, I’m told, and become seized by the overwhelming desire to escape even if you have to claw your way out.

The element that gives me faith in this city over others lies in its mirror imagery.

East Lansing has things that exist everywhere else: malls, parks, streets that don’t get plowed, curmudgeonly neighbors, and the like. We manufacture and redistribute everything — even the cut of the wood in Patriarche Park is identical to Beverly Park back home — but this place has more like-minded people than a crappy suburb like the place I grew up.

In an absolutely duplication-prone world, it’s nice to think I can still play lava tag with some random girls at 4 a.m. without feeling outright sketchy.

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