Slide, Sliding Board, Sliding Pon(d), Chute, etc. What did you call it?

[umsami]

So, my kids and I were reading a book in which the term "sliding board" was used instead of the one we are most familiar with "slide."  I had never heard that before.  Google revealed that it is a regional term, as are the others listed above.

 

So, where did you grow up and what did you call that piece of playground equipment where you climb to the top of a ladder and zoom on down?

[Arcadia]

I grew up in SE Asia. Our playground slides were concrete mostly and some were metal slides. A chute would be the newer covered plastic slide.

[AnnE-girl]

I've never heard of those other terms. I will say that the old playground at the public school near my childhood home had what could probably be called a sliding board. It looked like a three ft wide piece of sheet metal that was attached to the side of the wooden play structure about five feet off the ground. It was a very odd short slide. It also got insanely hot on sunny days.

 

Edited to add: I grew up in the suburbs of a large Midwestern city.

Edited April 20, 2017 by AnnE-girl

[Pink and Green Mom]

I say slide but I do remember them being called sliding boards when I was I elementary school (born in 1970, lived in NJ my entire childhood).

[AmandaVT]

Always called it a slide - I had to google to see what the others were and this article cracked me up!

[rebbyribs]

I grew up calling them sliding boards, but I call them slides now.  And I called the play structure a "climbing apparatus".  I'm not sure if that was my region or just my parents being weird.

 

ETA: I'm from Eastern Maryland, and my parents are from New Jersey.

Edited April 20, 2017 by rebbyribs

[Tap]

Just called it a slide. Pnw

[Junie]

I use the term sliding board.  I grew up in Pennsylvania.

[Selkie]

I grew up in the midwest and have only ever heard it called a slide.

[Lady Florida.]

I grew up in northern NJ and we called it a sliding pond. However, I don't know if that's a regional term or an  antiquated term. It could have just been the times I grew up in since terms for things do change. I've lived more of my life in Florida than NJ (I was 13 when my family moved here and I'm almost eligible for social security now) and have called it a slide for more years than I can recall.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Japan- suberidai. I.e. Slide in English

 

 

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[HTRMom]

In south central and southwest US it's a slide.

 

 

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[Rosie_0801]

A slide, but I was familiar with chute and slippery dip from story books.

[Mama Geek]

Slide or sliding board either one although I voted slide

[emmaluv+2more]

Slide.  Grew up in the midwest.

[Xahm]

I grew up with sliding board in Ga, but switched to slide. Now I've heard my preschool age kids saying sliding board, and I don't know where they heard it. I assume other kids on the playground.

[Farrar]

Slide. I grew up in GA/NC.

 

I was familiar with chute from a childhood song. And I remember some people using slippery slide. In my head that's specifically the corkscrew slides, but that may just be a childhood fancy.

[MercyA]

Midwest, slide.

 

I love this poll. Slippery dip?!? Sliding pot?!? Too fun.

[Liz CA]

A slide and a slippery slide are two different things here.

A slide is playground equipment usually made of some kind of tough plastic around here.

 

A slippery slide is a long mat-like material that gets very slippery when you turn the garden hose on it. In the summer, we used to run, then plop onto the watery - slippery slide and slide the length of it while getting wet. These work best in a front - or back yard with a slight slope. :)

They are sometimes sold as "Slip n' Slide."

Edited April 20, 2017 by Liz CA

[Lady Florida.]

So no one called it a sliding pond? That's what makes me think it's antiquated rather than regional. I don't know when I started calling it just a slide but I know I used that word by the time my niece was born in 1988.

 

I never heard the other terms used. Only sliding pond and slide.

[Arcadia]

A slippery slide is a long mat-like material that gets very slippery when you turn the garden hose on it. In the summer, we used to run, then plop onto the watery - slippery slide and slide the length of it while getting wet. These work best in a front - or back yard with a slight slope. :)

Your slippery slide would be the homemade equivalent of what I called water slides at water parks. There are inflatable lawn water slides but I have never tried those.

[Word Nerd]

We sometimes called it a slipper slide as kids but mostly just slide.

[SJ.]

We called it a sliding board. I am from NE Ohio.

[bookbard]

Slippery dip. Australia. 

[Zoo Keeper]

Slide here in Maine….but the inlaws in PA call it a sliding board and confuse my children. 

[Arctic Bunny]

Slide - Canada, prairies. The things I learn on here!

[luuknam]

I voted for slide, since that's the English word I was taught for it. Of course, what I grew up calling it was a glijbaan, which is what it's called in Dutch.

 

ETA: I've taken my kids to the playground in Texoma and in WNY plenty of times and have only ever heard it referred to as a slide.

Edited April 20, 2017 by luuknam

[Seasider]

Sliding board, gulf south

[Tammi K]

Sliding board when I was a kid in PA.  Slippery dip when my kids were living in Australia. Slide everywhere else.

 

funny story -  I grew up in Pennsylvania Dutch part of PA.  As a kid I frequently heard, "Stop rutching around," or 'rutch over'.   It was only when I lived in Bavaria and learned that a slide in German was rutche that I really understood that wasn't an 'everywhere' kind of word.

Edited April 20, 2017 by Tammi K

[eternalsummer]

sliding a board is when a group posts a lot of nonsense on a web forum in order to bury (or slide) the relevant threads

 

the thing you zoom down is a slide (texas, missouri, now colorado)

 

had no idea there were different words for it!

[Melissa in Australia]

slide - Australia

but I am familiar with the term Slippery Dip from reading The Magic Faraway Tree

[Carrie12345]

I grew up in northern NJ and we called it a sliding pond. However, I don't know if that's a regional term or an  antiquated term. It could have just been the times I grew up in since terms for things do change. I've lived more of my life in Florida than NJ (I was 13 when my family moved here and I'm almost eligible for social security now) and have called it a slide for more years than I can recall.

 

Also from North Jersey, but younger. I've never heard sliding pond.

[MercyA]

My husband reminded me that in The Happy Man and His Dump Truck, the animals say, "What a fine sliding board!" when they are tipped out of the truck.

 

I love a man who knows his children's books.  :)

 

The book was first published in 1950.

[QueenCat]

Sliding board or slide, used interchangeably growing up. MidAtlantic region.

[VaKim]

Western Virginia. Called it a sliding board as a kid. After growing up and being exposed to lots more people and books, etc., I just call it a slide now. 

[mom2scouts]

When I was a child we called it a sliding board. I usually just say slide now.

[Seasider]

My husband reminded me that in The Happy Man and His Dump Truck, the animals say, "What a fine sliding board!" when they are tipped out of the truck.

 

I love a man who knows his children's books. :)

 

The book was first published in 1950.

I love that book. My little ones laughed aloud every time we read it together!

[heartlikealion]

When I hear slippery I automatically think of the Slip n Slide. I just say slide for the kind at the park.

[SKL]

We used to use "sliding board" in the midwest.  At some point it just became "slide."  It wasn't a literal "board" even when I was a kid.  :P

[SKL]

I grew up calling them sliding boards, but I call them slides now.  And I called the play structure a "climbing apparatus".  I'm not sure if that was my region or just my parents being weird.

 

ETA: I'm from Eastern Maryland, and my parents are from New Jersey.

 

I have heard "climbing apparatus," but we used to call it "monkey bars."  I never hear "monkey bars" any more ....

[SKL]

Speaking of old fashioned play terms, who else here sang this song as a little kid:

 

Say, say, oh playmate,
Come out and play with me
And bring your dollies three
Climb up my apple tree

Slide down my rain barrel
Into my cellar door
And we'll be jolly friends
Forever more more more more more

Say, say, oh playmate
I cannot play with you
My dolly's got the flu
Boo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo

Ain't got no rain barrel
Ain't got no cellar door
But we'll be jolly friends
Forever more more more more more

Edited April 20, 2017 by SKL

[Word Nerd]

Speaking of old fashioned play terms, who else here sang this song as a little kid:

 

Say, say, oh playmate,

Come out and play with me

And bring your dollies three

Climb up my apple tree

 

Slide down my rain barrel

Into my cellar door

And we'll be jolly friends

Forever more more more more more

 

Say, say, oh playmate

I cannot play with you

My dolly's got the flu

Boo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo

 

Ain't got no rain barrel

Ain't got no cellar door

But we'll be jolly friends

Forever more more more more more

 

We did!

[luuknam]

I have heard "climbing apparatus," but we used to call it "monkey bars."  I never hear "monkey bars" any more ....

 

 

You should hear my 6yo.

 

I do imagine that climbing apparatus is a broader category than just monkey bars, and would also encompass climbing racks, etc.

[KungFuPanda]

I had to vote "other" because we called it a "slicky slide."

[KungFuPanda]

Sliding board when I was a kid in PA.  Slippery dip when my kids were living in Australia. Slide everywhere else.

 

funny story -  I grew up in Pennsylvania Dutch part of PA.  As a kid I frequently heard, "Stop rutching around," or 'rutch over'.   It was only when I lived in Bavaria and learned that a slide in German was rutche that I really understood that wasn't an 'everywhere' kind of word.

 

I just had this experience with the word "jakey."  My mother always used it when an outfit looked particularly mismatched or disheveled, but when I used it the other day I got some blank, blinking stares.  I feel like my family set me up.  I never know until those moments that something isn't commonly used.

[athomeontheprairie]

I marked slide. But I've used the word chute also. Only when there are two "slides" in close proximity and one is a completely covered tunnel.

[TravelingChris]

I marked sliding board because that is what we called it when I was a kid in Northern Virginia.  When I saw the list, I thought that sliding pond is something I heard.  Now I know it was probably what my dh who grew up in northern NJ had called it.  We have lived in many places and now I will usually refer to it as a slide.

 

I still use the term monkey bars but I use that for more rectangular boxy types of climbing apparati.  I now use climbing apparatus to reference other types of climbing structures such as the gigantic three story climbing half sphere my kids enjoyed while living in Belgium.

[lllll]

nm

Edited May 7, 2017 by _ -_-

[AlmostEmptyNest]

Slide in Minnesota 

[Ailaena]

The stuff I learn here, I swear... :p