Designed for a Child

When I was little, I lived in London where everything was grey.  From the pavement to the buildings and even the weather, the color grey saturated the landscape.  Different shades of grey surrounded me wherever I went, except at one special place that I still hold close to my heart.  This place was a children’s playground right by the River Thames that had brightly colored slides and shapes cut out of the plastic climbing walls.  I so clearly remember this playground as an oasis of new color and form completely different to what I saw everyday.  Not only did the playground have sentimental value to me (going with my parents, grandfather, friends, etc) but it excited my imagination in ways that would not happen anywhere else. The bright color of red plastic covered one wall of the walkway to the slide right next to yellow and blue.  The primary colors placed one after another stood out in my child mind and it is now obvious to me that the designer of the play park wanted to stimulate the young minds of children.  The smooth almost soft feel of the plastic slide still stands out in my memory along with that static, fuzzy feeling on my hands after sliding down it.  (This was how I first learned about static electricity.)  Going back to the playground now, I am sure I would be disappointed at its size and the brightness of its colors, but it was perfectly designed for a child in mind.