Muncie people my age probably remember seeing movies at the Showplace 7 or Movies at Muncie Mall. Those my parents’ age remember the Rivoli and Strand. People as old as my great-grandparents might have gone to see moving pictures at the Theatorium! Recently, I stumbled across a postcard of that short-lived nickelodeon which stood at the northeast corner of Walnut and Seymour. It was Muncie’s first motion picture theater¹.

When I was a kid in the nineties and early 2000s, playgrounds were just beginning to trade their rickety old personality-filled contraptions for equipment that was modern, standardized, and lacking in character . A few relics fortunately remain, and a favorite of mine is the old rocket slide at Muncie’s Prairie Creek Reservoir. It’s been little more than an enormous lawn ornament for fifteen years now, but the old slide represents a fascinating chapter in playground history- one I’m proud to have experienced the final part of.