The swing set is rudimentary in design: two or more poles lodged in the ground, usually metal, separated by some distance and connected on top by another metal pole in which two lines of chain or rope descend from which hold a solid or slightly bendy platform (materials used in the platform could be canvas, tire tread, plastic, wood, or metal) in which to place your seat and with a push off and the momentum caused by swinging legs, one can rock back and forth like a pendulum up to 180 degrees (or more) and at the full height, one is somewhat parallel to the ground. Of course there are other types of swings out there such as a tire swing which is made of a whole tire which can either be suspended by three points horizontally or by a single point when one is hung vertically which is typical to see in the front yard of a home on the arm of a great oak tree. Rope swings dangle from a tree, a bridge, or any other type of elevated structure, and typically have a large knot or a loop tied at the bottom in order to place your feet. Rope swings are most likely to be found around large deep bodies of water where a person could swing down, let go and be cushioned from the fall. Swings can be canopied benches that oscillate lightly on a porch during a cool summer night. A hammock hung up to relax in swings from between two trees. 

The swing, while a fun and enjoyable form of play and entertainment, can be one of the more dangerous objects found on the typical American playground. The most common injury from a swing set would likely be from falling. A young child could inadvertently release their hold on the chains of the swing and fall off while an older child could intentionally attempt to jump off from the apex of their swing only to land and injure themselves. Further, the motion of the swing allows for other patrons of the playground to be hit by a descending swinger if they are not paying attention. A child or adult's clothing could become entangled in the chains holding the swing and as they, intentionally or unintentionally, try to remove themselves from the swing, they could end up strangulating or hanging themselves. As a child in Mrs. Katz’s first grade class at Valley View Elementary in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, I had a crush on a girl named Camille. In my six year old mind I thought that the best way in order to flirt with her was to kick wood chips at her while she was on the swing that was outside of our classroom. While it was not a successful nor gentle way of showing my affection, I was lucky that she was not injured in the least bit but rather she just jumped off and ran back into the classroom with rosy cheeks and her eyes full of tears. On the same playground, we had four swing sets and two tire swings. The tire swings were horizontally suspended by three chains about a foot off the ground. These tire swings were infamous for causing children to puke as while one or two people sat on the large tractor tire with their legs dangling from the inside or resting on the lip of the inner tire, another kid would spin the tire in order to twist the chains up as tight as they could go before releasing them which caused a quick rush in the opposite direction. What resulted was pure dizziness, a disorientation that caused the kids that instantly got off the tire to stumble this way and that and the kids that stayed on the swing to sit with their head down as the world spun around them, usually resulting in their recently eaten lunch to be tossed. 

However, the swing to an adult can muster up feelings of nostalgia; an instant flashback to their childhood, awakening a sense of wonderment that they hadn’t known for some time. Every time I get onto a swing set and begin to pump my legs, each pass under the bar quicker and with more force than the one before until I am looking straight up at the sky with my feet forward or straight back down at the Earth ready to extend my feet out again, I get a sense of adolescence, of what once was but is now a figment of the past that I am becoming more and more unfamiliar with as the years go on. What was once thrilling and wild is now understood, recognizable, and awakening. A common experience that someone encounters on a roller coaster is the feeling of their stomach dropping, or that “sinking feeling” that one gets when you hit the steep downhill drops at full speed. The more a roller coaster is pushing and pulling and providing you with a weightlessness during the air time, your organs that are normally held in place in a certain way due to gravity are now being pushed and pulled during the suspension caused by what I would call the “free-fall” state that the speed and angle provides on such a ride. Everything inside of your body is being shoved around by speed, momentum, velocity, the loss and the regaining of gravity. As I have become older, I have this same sort of “sinking feeling” in the pit of my insides as I descend either way on the pendulum of the swing. I find it exhilarating, a feeling that I don’t have often enough, a feeling that I loved as a child, a weightlessness, a freedom from the bounds of the gravity that surrounds us, something unusual that few things in life can spark inside of us. However, after four or five good stomach drops, I have to scrape my feet on the wood chips below to allow for a quick stop in order to get off. Some things stay the same, some things change drastically. Such is life.