Ahhhh, those metal slides that seared the flesh off the back of your legs in summer and the wooden swingset seats that were guaranteed to, at least once a year, knock out a tooth or ensure a trip to the emergency room for a combination of concussion, stitches and/or an extremely nasty hematoma.
Our elementary school playground had what we called "the maypole". As I can best describe it, it was a large metal ring about 10 feet across that was suspended from a pole by four chains on a swivel. Several children could hang onto it and start running around and then lift up their feet, thus spinning it. Unfortunately, the revolutions would become unbalanced and the ring would start crashing into the pole, with smashed fingers as the results. That didn't stop us from using it daily at recess. We weren't too smart.