The Old Turtle Head

Our elementary school playground had a turtle-shaped climbing gym with a metal turtle head. The head had a hollow space inside, and you could fill it with mulch — as many uninspired children did — or fascinating rocks you found at the “rock factory,” which is what we called the hill next to the soccer field because we dug up rocks.

Sometimes, we placed notes inside and then informed someone on the playground that there was a note for them in the turtle head; an inefficient and frankly dangerous way of passing notes since it required the person to leave their game of kickball immediately to fetch it, lest it end up in the wrong hands.

This article made me weepy about a home for retired playground animals. Our turtle climbing gym is long gone; our elementary school became a community center many years ago. Moreover, I think a copy of that dolphin statue once upon a time was down here in Maryland outside the Loehmann’s in Loehmann’s Plaza on Rockville Pike, but the Internet fails me as I try to find photographic proof.

I love the idea of a playground animal cemetary you can visit.