The Death of the Playground

Kurt Behm was a typical, middle class baby-boomer kid growing up in the 1950s. While playing badminton with his

Sister in the back yard, he tried to retrieve a shuttlecock (birdie)

that got stuck up in one of the pine trees which separated the woods from his backyard. His Mothers aluminum clothespole was his weapon of choice.



Again and again he threw it up into the tree with no success,

until all at once it looked like the 4th of July. Fire and sparks

were everywhere. The aluminum clothes pole had threaded itself

between the electrical wires that ran hidden through the trees.

It was now acting as a conductor between all three wires, creating

an effect his father later compared to Guadalcanal.



The ensuing fire burned the woods completely to the ground.

A year later and amidst the charred remains, his township had the foresight and the vision to turn that rubble into what every red-blodded boy of that era dreamed of having for himself ............. a Playground.



Kurt's life from then on would never be the same