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 personality. 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.

My hometown of Muncie features a variety of great old signs. One of my favorites is a mile south of town on US-35. It marks the site of the old Ayco Golf & Recreation Center. 

I’m a pretty observant person, I think, but it must have taken a hundred trips up and down Wheeling Pike north of Muncie before I spied an intriguing boulder. It probably took another hundred before I was able to nab a clear photo with my DSLR! The enormous rock commemorates a pioneer family that settled straddling the Hamilton/Harrison Township line! This boulder waits patiently, letting us speed by on the old highway, until someone curious enough figures out how to slow down, whip out a camera, and start asking questions.