When I was growing up around Lola Valley, one kid i knew lived directly next to the park and ran a waterhose from his house to the hill, left it on overnight, and the next morning, it had frozen solid into a solid sheet of ice  going down the length of the hill (about 100 yards). You didn’t even need a sled to go down it. That thing was dangerous because you’d hit the magical speed necessary to launch out over the lola valley river bank and almost completely reach the other side.

Summer :

Rope Swing:

There were undoubtably several over the years. Ours was at or around Lennane and Lola Valley Drive in a long ago Reagan era before some of the readers of this forum were even born…lol.

The fire department actually came in and cut it down as dangerous.

I think the winter after that was the year some guy fell in the river at the park and caught the Hantavirus from some rats. (not joking).

You had to climb up in a willow tree, say about 10-12-20 feet up…there were pegs after the first looooooong reach, and then you had a choice of “pussy” “not so pussy” and “crazy as fuck” height at which to jump…and then you sat on the crossbar of the swing (none of that tire bullshit…this was just a really strong stick tied up like a trapeze would be…), jump down, and hold on for dear life as that fucker swung you up 30 or 40 feet in the air. You had to be careful to not fall off the stick when the rope reached the apex of the swing, and then…when it swung back down, you had to give it enough leverage to not swing right back smashing into the trunk of the willow tree.

The bitch took some skill.

Never experienced anything quite like the rush of that first drop in my life, either.