Oskaloosa Playground Icon Getting A New Lease On Fun

Oskaloosa city employees work on retrofitting a new slide to the 'Rocket' at Edmundson Park

Oskaloosa, Iowa – Nostalgia can be defined as a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time. For many long time Oskaloosa residents, memories of childhood play at the Edmundson Playground involve their time conquering “The Rocket”.

While heading off to a different story, we spotted a city crew at the slide. We feared the icon had met it’s day and was headed for the scrap heap. As we parked, thinking that we were going to possibly be taking one of the last photo’s of the slide, we were intrigued to see a crew working on retrofitting a new plastic slide in place of the old metal slide.

During summer months, those metal slides would get extremely hot raising concerns for the safety of young ones.

If the model is correct, with a little research, it appears the slide was manufactured by the Miracle Equipment Company just up the road in Grinnell. Another fan has pictures of his childhood’s favorite playground toy in Waterloo.

I posted the picture used for this story to Facebook late Thursday night, and asked people their thoughts on the ‘Rocket’, and here’s their thoughts.

John Voss “I played on that when i was a kid….I am happy to see it stay.Thanks guys!!!!”

Marjie Whipple “Wow, I didn’t even realize that it was still there. Have many good memories of that park & the slide. It used to be bright blue & red and it was a feat to make it up to the top. I used to be so scared to climb those last rungs, but when I gained enough courage, it felt as though I climbed Mt. Everest. So glad that they are keeping it.”

Sherry Vogt “That thing is rickity and unsafe—should have torn it down…and instead of wasting money…they should have been fixing all the pot holes in the streets would have been a much better use of time and money.”

Jeremy Bryan “I’ve lost a few layers of skin on that slide as a kid.”

Marie Hickey “Oh the rocket, loved playing on it as a kid, on one of my recent trips back home I hung out at the park and chatted with a friend, and even in my 30’s I had to take a trip to the top for old time memories, was sad to hear that they were thinking of tearing it down, but so grateful to see work is being done to restore it, especially for people like me that always enjoy the old days of Osky ♥!”