Maddy's Guide to Playgrounds in Burlington - Fox Hill

 

Basics:

Date of visit: June 8th, 2024

Where can I find it? Behind the school.

Bathrooms? nope

Parking? Plenty

When open? Weekends or when school is not in session. 

Review:

A tale of two playgrounds. It was the best of slides, it was the worst of slides. In a world that argues for unification, this playground sits in strong contrast! The two setups sit on either side of a large expanse of concrete, the purposes of which evade me. My father says it is for playing basketball and hopscotch, but I think we all know by now how unreliable a narrator he can be!

This system clearly believes in separating the haves and have nots. Those that have a signifcant number of inches in their height, 

Look at these foot holds. I practically have to bend myself in half to reach them!

How is a 3 year old supposed to master this!?

and those that do not!

This is more my speed, but I'll never admit it.

What are they afraid of? That the small ones running around will trip up and injure the big kids? Are they so fragile that a small child knocking them over will bring them to tears? Maybe they should be tripped up! A scratched up knee never hurt anyone? Well, except for the one who scratched up there knee. I did that once, and it hurt a lot. But I think my point stands!

Architecturally, there is not much to the setup that makes it stand out. One of the greater points of creativity I've seen in these systems come from the designers of the hand holds for climbing, and here I am not dissapointed. 

They're like little faces, both smiling at me and piercing my soul.

Conversely, the slide designers have mostly given up and resorted to clever wordplay.

A play on a short range air to air missile used by the US Airforce since 1956

All in all, Fox Hill presented a fun, if conflicted time. 

I give it 4 Charles Dickens covers:

Madelyn Hope Lewis is the senior playground tester of Lewis Developments, and a connoisseur of playtime activities. When she's not exploring Massachusetts fun time architecture, she can be found scouting out where is exactly "the line" with her parents.