Recreation room

“ This special camp facility provides significantly more living privileges, including a communal living arrangement, access to all areas of the camp (including a recreation yard, bunk house, and an activity room) , access to entertainment (including a television set equipped with a VCR and DVD, a stereo system, and equipment for soccer, table football (foosball) , and table tennis) , air conditioning in all living areas (which they control) , special food items, and expanded access to shower facilities and library materials. ”

“ They have need of free movement and of air. The recreation rooms which tend to keep the children of the street shut up indoors even during recess are taking from the [Pg 303] children of the people the sole advantage that still remained to them. ”

“ The club-house is a low, white rambling building set among trees and the most perfect of lawns. It has really beautiful suites of rooms, including a dancing hall and a dining-room. From its broad verandah a steep grass slope drops down to the sea water of one of the harbour arms. Many trees shade the slope and the idling paths on it, and through the trees shines the water, which has an astonishing blueness.
At the water's edge is a bathing place, with board rafts and a high skeleton diving platform. ”

“ Every room, under the admirable arrangement of the plan, looks out either upon the street or the yard, that is nothing less than a great park with a play-ground set apart for the children, where they may dig in the sand to their heart’s content. Weekly concerts are given in the park by a brass band. The drying of clothes is done on the roof, where racks are fitted up for the purpose. The outside stairways end in turrets that give the buildings a very smart appearance. ”

“ The splendid park which looks so lordly with its noble trees is only the playground for the little girls in gingham aprons in the intervals of their study; and the fine, high-ceilinged, spacious old salon, a veritable Henry James room, is employed in anything but a Henry James manner as the workroom where all the children from the poorer houses round about sit in the sunshine, setting beautiful fine stitches and chattering like magpies. ”

“ Park facilities provided in recreational sites include tables and benches, barbecue pits, litter bins, children's play apparatus, shelters, campsites and toilets — all carefully designed to blend in with the environment. ”

“ The floor of the room is magically transformed into a prairie, a sea, or other locality, the hidden space under the table becomes a robber's cave, a chair serves as horse, ship, or other vehicle, to suit the exigencies of the particular play. ”

“ Half a day a week, together with the evenings of the long summer days, would suffice where the means of recreation are near at hand. Even the smallest factory villages could afford a little pleasure ground of their own, a public garden with a free gymnasium, a footrace track, ball ground, a tennis-hall or nine-pin-alley, for the winter season, a free bath, and a few zoölogical attractions. ”

“ We have not utilized the school plants completely unless they are used for recreation and social centers by adults. Fortunately, a school plant that provides for the constructive play and recreation activities of children is also most admirably adapted for similar activities with adults. The playground, gymnasiums, swimming-pools, auditorium, club and social rooms, library, shops, laboratories, etc., make a complete social and recreation center for adults. ”

“ Like a generous host, she offers here brimming cups in endless variety, served in a grand hall, the sky its ceiling, the mountains its walls, decorated with glorious paintings and enlivened with bands of music ever playing. The petty discomforts that beset the awkward guest, the unskilled camper, are quickly forgotten, while all that is precious remains. ”

“ This gaming-hall is furnished with elegant dining, ball, and reading-rooms, and adjoining the building is an extensive and elegantly laid out park and pleasure-ground, where a fine band play during the afternoon, and throngs frequent its delightful alleys, walks, and arbors. ”

“ This building is divided by a partition into two apartments, in one of which, perhaps in the corner, a huge fire-place is constructed of rude stones, to the height of six or seven feet, where a large wooden mantle-bar is thrown across, from which point, with small split sticks, straw, and clay, it is topped out in the fashion of a chimney. This is the cook, eating, sitting, bar, and often the card-playing room, where teamsters, in crowded numbers, enjoy all the luxuries which their circumstances will admit, one of which is a most excellent appetite. ”

“ Normally it requires two distinct kinds of recreation grounds to supply the needs of these people,—the local or neighborhood park for frequent and regular use, and the rural park for occasional holiday enjoyment. ”

“ This includes first, playgrounds laid out for all recreational sports, in their season. The ideal playground system will have enough room in walks and landscape-gardening for park development—sufficient to meet the community's maximum needs.
Community physical-fitness centers are growing up in which an adjacent lake or river provides facilities for rowing, canoeing, and recreational enjoyment through breathing the fresh air, while taking regular physical, conditioning exercises. ”

“ Whenever possible it is most desirable to erect for the main camp building a house, rustic in design if built in the woods, (p. 23.) which includes a large room for mess hall and recreational purposes, kitchen, store closet, ice room. (Cut A.) The types and floor plans of such houses vary greatly, but certain things are essential in all. They should afford protection in bad weather, some warmth in cold weather, ample space for serving mess, room for entertainments, meetings and so forth; a conveniently arranged kitchen, and proper facilities for the care of food. ”

“ In that part of the school buildings and grounds devoted to recreation are to be found swimming pools, one for each sex, tennis courts, baseball diamonds, swings, slides, and other aids to enjoyment loved by and suitable to the young of all ages and both sexes. ”

“ At the outset it may be noted that for half the year the occupants of these homes spend the hours of recreation out of doors, also that most of them prefer that opportunities for such recreation should be had within easy reach of the home itself. Though the public-houses and the numerous artificial pleasures provided in towns are sought by so many, the persistence of those who still cultivate the contracted and ill-favoured garden strip suggests a need of the greatest importance. ”

“ To such a class, the benefits of a Park, possessing such facilities for recreation and improvement as the Sea-side Park will present, will be incalculable, in fostering the health, promoting the happiness, and elevating the taste of all who can avail themselves of its beneficial influences. ”

“ Betwixt these cottages an iron gateway admits to the large enclosure shaded by great trees, on which all the tiny gardens of the houses surrounding abut. The base of each tree is rimmed by a seat. There is abundant room for clothes-lines, not infringing on the space for the children’s play. ”

“ You may not know that the chief social institution in the young prairie town is the pool room. It is the club house of the village and the community. It is usually a long, crude building of plain boards, unpainted inside or out, and equipped in its central part with a huge coal stove and three or four pool tables. ”

“ The cardboard is then pressed outward and upward to make the awning. (See Diagram One, C, page 166, for cutting awning.) Color the awning with red stripes.
Side-show tents for circus grounds are made like the tents of Camp Box. (See Diagram Three, E, page 171, for cutting the rim of a shallow box and bending it to make a tent.)
All toy figures that you can muster—tumble toys, wooden dolls, penny dolls, Noah’s Ark ladies, shepherds and shepherdesses, should go to Box Brothers’ Circus on the play-room floor. If you look among your toys, you will find animals for the circus, I know. ”

“ Shorter trips, the Big Room tours that start at the elevators in the visitor center, take in only a part of the underground chambers. All tours are under leadership of competent park guides who answer questions and explain the earth processes that have resulted in the caverns and their amazing decorations. ”

“ The two recreation parks within a five-cent fare of the town, owned by the street railway, are the scenes of many school and church picnics and lodge gatherings. Here the young people find the skating rinks and dancing pavilions and the shrill music of the merry-go-rounds, while tired mothers seek quiet grass plots where they may sit and watch the children play, and where they may have the rare chance to gossip with their neighbors. ”

“ The place is a fine playground, with its soft, grassy carpet, and noble old trees. It is the sort of park which adjoins country houses of wealthy old English families, where years of training have brought to perfection the trees planted by previous generations. ”

“ We could counteract the temptations of the grog-shops by providing the poor with healthier means of recreation; city parks with free baths, competitive gymnastics and zoölogical attractions for the summer season, and reading rooms with picture galleries and musical entertainments for the long winter evenings. ”

“ The park which surrounds the house, is large and beautiful; and the patients may wander undisturbed in its many alleys, enjoy the beauty of the country, and rest on the benches under the trees. The flowers were a real luxury here, and on all hands one met with agreeable objects, with the exception, of course, of the poor lunatics themselves. ”

“ Community Buildings.—The larger appreciation of the importance of play and recreation in rural life has brought attention to the lack of physical equipment. Every rural community needs a playground large enough to include a good baseball diamond and a basketball court, and a building where indoor sports, gymnasium work and basketball games can be held. ”

“ The entire building should be equipped with shades, screens, ash and garbage cans. Each apartment should be provided with separate and complete bath room equipment. Playground, and if possible, a small additional park, should be provided adjacent to the building for the exclusive use of the tenants. ”

“ Those girls who had some slight skill in carpentry constructed rustic benches and tables from the boughs blown down by last autumn's storms, and those who preferred nature untouched by art had their favourite seats in snug corners among the bushes or on the stones by the water-side. With the first burst of warm weather bathing was allowed, and every morning detachments of figures in mackin [Pg 158] toshes and tennis-shoes might be seen wending their way towards the large pool to indulge in the exhilarating delight of a dip in clear, flowing water, followed by a brisk run round the glade. ”

“ But the people who most call attention to the state of the park are those who have sat in the back drawing-room with their ‘gurls,’ while mamma has been Grenadier at the door, and papa has put a handkerchief over his broad face, when he has finished his glass of port after lunch (after lunch!) , and smokes his cigar in the dining room. It really is so. Young men{29} and maidens may sit on a plush sofa in the dreadful back drawing-room and behave as young men and maidens should (and if they shouldn’t, they will) ”

“ The house is a magnificent structure, of a square form, having a tower at each outward angle. The ascent to the east front is by a grand flight of steps, to an open saloon, or portico, which leads to the principal door of the hall. The apartments are spacious, fitted up in the most sumptuous and costly manner, and contain a good collection of pictures. The park is about six miles in circumference; it abounds with wood, and its grounds are beautifully disposed, the effect being considerably heightened by a charming lake, which is inhabited by a great variety of water fowl. ”

“ Here’s a thing to go fishing after that there’s real recreation in, full-size man’s recreation, and not the Persian-palace recreation of an Adirondack camp, with ice and servants and electric push-buttons. ”

“ The ball-room should be large; the floor well waxed, or covered-242- with drugget, and an abundance of palms and potted plants set about to make cosy nooks just lighted by a shaded lamp. Cut flowers may be massed upon the mantels with gorgeous effect. If the stairway be of sufficient breadth, it should be bravely furnished forth with plants in bloom. If it should be a first-floor room and open into the cool dusk of a faintly lighted conservatory, then it is everything to be desired for the occasion. Good ventilation is an absolute necessity. ”

“ For instance, there will be no objection to field recreations or any outdoor exercises which conduce to the maintenance of health and spirits. A reading room and a library will be provided, together with a hall, in which they can amuse themselves in the long winter nights and in unfavourable weather. ”

“ Above the dressing-room is a ball court where various kinds of exercise can be taken, and a number of games can be played at once. Not far from the bath-room is a staircase leading to a covered passage, at the head of which are three rooms, one looking out upon the courtyard with the four plane-trees, the second upon the meadow, and the third upon the vineyards, so each therefore enjoys a different view. At the end of the passage is a bed-chamber constructed out of the passage itself, which looks out upon the riding-course, the vineyards, and the mountains. ”