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I was looking at the Activities Schedule and noticed that is says Sports Equipment is available to RENT at the bike barn.  Last time I got any of the sports equipment all you had to do tell them your site number.  Are they really charging you to get these items now?  Oldest schedule I saw was Nov 2015 and it was listed the same way.  When did they start this.  Is this another perk quietly gone by the wayside?  

They used to have volleyballs and basketballs in a small box at the courts. I guess too many of them went missing so you had to go to the bike barn to check them out but there was no charge.   

Feb2016Act.jpg

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Surely we have members that have asked for sports equipment in the last year.  Please tell us they did not charge you to use a ball or play shuffleboard.  Especially shuffleboard, that court is in awful shape.  They should pay you to play on that thing.  

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25 minutes ago, Memphis said:

Surely we have members that have asked for sports equipment in the last year.  Please tell us they did not charge you to use a ball or play shuffleboard.  Especially shuffleboard, that court is in awful shape.  They should pay you to play on that thing.  

I haven't borrowed any sports equipment since they stopped carrying jarts (party poopers).  But, I will make a point of stopping by the Bike Barn to check on this the next time I'm at the Fort.

TCD

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7 hours ago, bhall said:

If I ever have the opportunity to attend a GG, remind me to bring my Lawn Darts set. 

 

Let me know if you want to dispose of them. The yearly family reunion has a Jarts tournament and they are getting hard to,come by. 

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3 hours ago, Travisma said:

Greatest toy ever!  Leave it to the guvment to be a nanny an ban them because people couldn't pay attention to their kids.

In all seriousness, they really were not a great toy, and the story of why they are no longer sold is a very tragic one:

David Snow, an aerospace engineer from Riverside, California, wasn’t even looking for lawn darts when he went shopping for party games in April 1987. He wanted a volleyball set, but all the department store had was volleyball in a combo pack with two other games. Whatever, he decided. He’d buy it, set up the volleyball net and leave the rest in the box in the garage.

His plan didn’t bear out. One Sunday afternoon soon after, his nine-year-old son and some of his neighborhood friends found the Jarts and began tossing them around in Snow’s backyard. One kid tossed his Jart too far and too high, sailing it over the backyard fence and into the front yard, where Snow’s daughter, seven-year-old Michelle, was playing with her dolls. The Jart came down right on her and, with what researchers estimate as 23,000 pounds of pressure per square inch, penetrated her skull. She collapsed, was rushed to the hospital, and was pronounced clinically dead three days later.

For weeks after, the Snows were overcome with grief. When David returned to work at Hughes Aircraft, he had a hard time adjusting. He sat in meetings listening to his co-workers talk about work things. Parts shortages. Budgets. Personnel issues. None of it seemed the least bit important anymore. His sadness gave way to anger, and he began a crusade. "I want to get these damned darts," he told The Los Angeles Times at the time. "These things killed my child. If I don't do anything, it's just a matter of time before someone else gets killed. I'm going to get them off the market. Whatever it takes."
 
 
TCD
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Well that's horrifying.

While nowhere near as devastating, my grandmother did end up with a significant injury to her foot from these well before they disappeared from the market. As I recall, that was the last time we were allowed to play with them.

Ironically it was a relatively harmless badminton racquet that caused the scar on my forehead. My sister and I were playing, and her racquet came apart as she was swinging, leaving her holding the handle, and me headed to the ER for 6 stitches.

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37 minutes ago, BradyBzLyn...Mo said:

Ironically it was a relatively harmless badminton racquet that caused the scar on my forehead. My sister and I were playing, and her racquet came apart as she was swinging, leaving her holding the handle, and me headed to the ER for 6 stitches.

Ah, the good old days.  It's a wonder any of us made it to adulthood.  My sister knocked herself unconscious when she was bent over pulling out a croquet stake, and it popped out and hit her right in the middle of the forehead.  Scared the heck out of my parents and everyone there.  We thought she was dead.  She turned out OK, though, she went on to earn an MD and is still practicing.

TCD

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1 hour ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

Ah, the good old days.  It's a wonder any of us made it to adulthood.  My sister knocked herself unconscious when she was bent over pulling out a croquet stake, and it popped out and hit her right in the middle of the forehead.  Scared the heck out of my parents and everyone there.  We thought she was dead.  She turned out OK, though, she went on to earn an MD and is still practicing.

TCD

My brother is 10 years younger than me (read "ok look, mom and dad got us a toy!!") and it's a wonder he ever survived for sure.  Never mind the stuff he got himself into, between my sister and I, we were responsible for knocking his front baby teeth out with a metal swing (I jumped off) and clocking him in the lip with a pogo stick (my sister jumped off). 

My best "oh no she's dead" moment was sledding down our hill and getting knocked off course and under a picnic table... head first.  I woke up on the couch in the living room.

Come to think of it... that explains a lot... B)

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6 hours ago, BradyBzLyn...Mo said:

My brother is 10 years younger than me (read "ok look, mom and dad got us a toy!!") and it's a wonder he ever survived for sure.  Never mind the stuff he got himself into, between my sister and I, we were responsible for knocking his front baby teeth out with a metal swing (I jumped off) and clocking him in the lip with a pogo stick (my sister jumped off). 

My best "oh no she's dead" moment was sledding down our hill and getting knocked off course and under a picnic table... head first.  I woke up on the couch in the living room.

Come to think of it... that explains a lot... B)

Mine was sledding down an icy hill on the base up in MA and wrapping myself around the swing set at the bottom. My little sister ran home to say "Keith won't wake up". We used to ice skate down that same hill when it was icy. At times I'm surprised I lived through my younger years. As an aside the swing set was one of those institutional types and resembled the one at the Fort except ours had swings.

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Yeah, both me and my brothers had our doozies. I ran a bicycle out into the middle of a 4 lane road and over the hood of a car. (thankfully it was sitting still). No helmet, and only a concussion from the incident. My brother fell off the ladder of a high dive at the local swimming pool, ended up with a cracked wrist, and my youngest brother caught a couple of fingers in an old time folding chair and lost the tips off of a couple of fingers.....

and how can I forget the time I decided to ride a tricycle down a very steep driveway and my nose met the concrete wall at the bottom (the day before kindergarten pictures)

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I remember playing with jarts as a kid, they were lots of fun. We were supervised and taught to watch the jart at all times.

I grew up on a small farm so there was plenty of room to play. I totally understand why they were banned. I owned

a set, but I got rid of them so my son , niece and nephew would not get hurt. Accidents happen. Wasn't worth it to keep them.

The above story is very sad.

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