Losing a detecting site
WhiteTornado
Posts: 2,102 ✭✭✭
This is a situation of losing a site not because of being forced out by rule/law, but by the site's characteristics changing. There is a tot lot near my house which has been the best local spot for me. It's within walking distance and has yielded the most finds for me. I say "most", although it's only given up about a buck in change 
. But, I just started my occasional hunts last July, and it's been the best place for me so far. The convenience factor has been especially great.
Late last fall, they started tearing down the tot lot to rebuild it. They are just about done and now I see that instead of mulch around the equipment as they had before, they have put down a layer of rubberized playground material.
If anyone did happen to lose coins or jewelry, most anyone could see it laying on the surface. I guess that site won't be of much use to me going forward.
There is another tot lot that is within walking distance of me, but it is rarely used and I've hunted it probably 3 times and barely found 5 pennies total. I guess I will have to plan on driving to get to any sites in the future.
. But, I just started my occasional hunts last July, and it's been the best place for me so far. The convenience factor has been especially great.Late last fall, they started tearing down the tot lot to rebuild it. They are just about done and now I see that instead of mulch around the equipment as they had before, they have put down a layer of rubberized playground material.
If anyone did happen to lose coins or jewelry, most anyone could see it laying on the surface. I guess that site won't be of much use to me going forward. There is another tot lot that is within walking distance of me, but it is rarely used and I've hunted it probably 3 times and barely found 5 pennies total. I guess I will have to plan on driving to get to any sites in the future.
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Comments
Lafayette Grading Set
By the way -
I may be a bit out of touch here, but seeing tot lots being rebuilt like that always makes me a bit grumpy. I don't understand why they need to made into such "clinical" venues with rubber and all sorts of equipment on them.. What was wrong with open grass with maybe a sandlot and some swings?
I've seen many such places from my youth where we used to play ball (incl. inventing our own games sometimes) that have become useless since then (or at least we would have thought so) as they don't have enough open space on them anymore. All kids can do is climb and slide on the sorry ass equipment they've become cluttered with.
/end rant/
-Z
<< <i>Digging through old books, maps, photos etc. to find potential sites is almost as much fun as detecting itself
By the way -
I may be a bit out of touch here, but seeing tot lots being rebuilt like that always makes me a bit grumpy. I don't understand why they need to made into such "clinical" venues with rubber and all sorts of equipment on them.. What was wrong with open grass with maybe a sandlot and some swings?
I've seen many such places from my youth where we used to play ball (incl. inventing our own games sometimes) that have become useless since then (or at least we would have thought so) as they don't have enough open space on them anymore. All kids can do is climb and slide on the sorry ass equipment they've become cluttered with.
/end rant/
-Z >>
I hear what you are saying, although not entirely sure this is the same type of situation. Most of the tot lots in my town, over 160 total, are along pathways in wooded areas. This one had a neat, unusual design that was done by a nearby resident. He was apparently an architect and even designed some well-known structures such as parts of Baltimore's Inner Harbor area. This tot lot near my house was built in the late 1970s and stood that way ever since (the architect passed away several years ago, before I moved to the area).
Our town government has all of the tot lots on a maintenance/replacement rotation. What this means is after X number of years, a tot lot is either repaired as needed or is replaced if the equipment is badly deteriorated. In our case, though, the tot lot had fallen out of code with Consumer Product Safety Commission guidelines, many of which had changed in the intervening years. It is amazing how many rules govern what can be built and how, for a tot lot. So what was done is the tot lot was replaced.
We do have a fair amount of open field space near the elementary school, which isn't far away. I've seen all kinds of activities take place there, and not just structured ones like soccer, baseball, and lacrosse. I've seen kids play frisbee, pickup football games, with parents launching model rockets, even saw a couple of guys flying RC airplanes one day.