When I was a child my favorite play structure was near the model homes in the housing development my family moved in. No swings, no slides – but there were tunnels. Somewhere back in Canada I have a black and white photo I took with my first camera in 1964.
It was basically a couple of large sewer pipes covered by a mound of earth. We could play there for hours. It wasn’t fancy, but it doesn’t take much to ignite a child’s imagination.
When we visited Mundenhof, the Freiburg zoo, I noticed a play area that reminded me of that childhood structure, though this one is far more elaborate. It was closed due to COVID-19 restrictions – but that didn’t stop some children from taking advantage of what I suppose is supposed to be some mythical Black Forest creature.
More elaborate than sewer pipes, it is still essentially a tunnel. On this sunny Friday afternoon I wanted to enter the creature myself, though I am not sure I would fit in most of the passageways. It looked like a lot of fun. Made me wish I was a child again.
Most of the time being an adult is much more fun than being a child. We have more autonomy, more options and fewer people telling us what to do. With that though comes more responsibilities. In these COVID-19 times, my guess is there are quite a few people who wouldn’t mind fewer number of responsibilities.
Especially if that would mean we could go and play on this play structure.
random thoughts from lorne 
This reminded me of the tunnels by siblings and I would dig in the snow. Growing up in Western New York, there were never any shortage of huge snow banks in which we created tunnels just like in these pictures!
I remember making snow tunnels. And every so often they would collapse on us and we’d have to dig ourselves out.
It seems like we don’t get snow like that any more. Or maybe it is that I am no longer three feet tall.