Memories, merry-go-rounds and water

According to TriplePundit, a company has come out with this new innovation called “The Play Pump.” The basic idea is that a lot of potentially useful energy is wasted when kids play, but it could be put to good use by attaching machines to playground toys. This could be an especially useful idea in the developing world where play could power pumps yielding clean, underground water.

It makes me think about how much fun I had on merry-go-rounds as a kid, but that reminds me of a memory that I’ve always sort of questioned. When I was little, I used to go to this thing called “Tot Lot.” I guess it was some sort of summer day-camp for kids. To be honest, I was so little that it’s all kind of a blur and I didn’t ever know what day of the week it was, let alone the season.

Here’s what I remember, though. I remember playing on merry-go-rounds and adults spinning them so fast that the kids would hold onto outer bars in such a way that the centifugal force had them shooting straight out from the toy, our feet floating up in the air and only touching the toy with our hands.

I really, truly remember doing this. In fact, I remember a certain point at which (I was a pretty cautious kid) I wouldn’t do it anymore because I was too scared, but my friends still did. In fact, I remember one girl in particular, Mindy, saying she really liked it when one guy came to the playground because when he spun the merry-go-round she “could really fly!”

I have two problems with this memory: 1) if kids were sticking out from the spinning merry-go-rounds bodily, then how did the adult get in there to get the thing spinning without smacking them off the thing? (is an adult even strong enough to get one of these things going that fast, anyway?) 2) I just can’t believe my even more cautious mother, who often supervised Tot Lot, would have ever permitted anything this crazy to go on.

Anyway, it’s a nice memory. And I’m glad kids in the developing world will have merry-go-rounds. Though, I have to be honest, I can’t help but think that before long it’s just going to become one of the kids’ daily chores to go out and spin the merry-go-round for everyone’s water. Plus, this design looks a lot less safe than the merry-go-rounds I grew up on. There’s no fully covered bottom surface, so it seems like a kid could get caught in it while spinning. The seating is much higher off the ground and there’s no easy handle for an adult to grab to suddenly stop the thing.

All that said, I think it will work well enough in most places and, there’s no question, the need for water outweighs risks and realities of how use of this device will really play out. Are you listening, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation?

[NOTE FROM 2002] The Play Pump was one of those classic do-gooder boondoggles, but it persists regardless.