Tiverton is one of the most beautiful sailing harbors in New England.  We love to walk to the Grinnell Beach playground, where the kids swing, slide and climb.  

I’m an old kid, and I like to swing, too, watch the boats, birds, fishermen and daydream.  The grandchildren were sad when the playground got demolished for beach improvements, but I promised them it would be rebuilt.  I must break my promise.  

Six months ago, we had a beach, playground, parking lot, restrooms and fishing place.  $500,000 later we still have those things — but no playground for our kids.

The little playground was nothing fancy: a swing set and a slide attached to a small climbing platform that was good for make believe — a ship, a fort, a lookout for boats.  Kids, teenagers and old folks, as myself, liked to play there year round, whereas swimming is limited to summer.  

A friend speculated that the playground won’t be rebuilt due to liability issues.  Hogwash.  Anyone can sue anybody for anything.  The safety card is always played.  Someone could get hurt.  Hogwash.  How did we survive?  

i don’t know the real reasons the beach playground was scratched, but I do know it usually boils down to money.  I am cognizant of high costs for bulbous plastic play equipment and new protective pads to meet safety standards, a marketing selling point but not true when playgrounds are built on appropriate, shock absorbing surfacing like sand.  

Why not recycle?  New seats for the old steel swing set.  A makeover for the slide and its shabby climbing platform. The point being: they all worked.  I’m guessing, the playground equipment got junked in a dumpster.  (I hope some thoughtful soul realized its use and saved it.)   

It’s sad.  All this money, and our beach playground is lost.  Yes, there are other playgrounds, but they are not responsive to kids going to a beach or to family fun offering something for everyone, year round in the village center.  Even on cold winter days, I saw moms, dads and grandparents get coffee at Coastal Roasters or Cumberland and stroll over with their kids to the beach playground. 

The town needs to rebuild its playground for our children, nothing big, but simple like the one we had — a small footprint befitting an historic sailing village with a swing set and a slide attached to a climbing platform to play make believe — and to dream.  

My grandfather, Big Daddy, used to say: Dreamers are the saviors of the world and the architects of heaven.

Jon Kemp

Tiverton