60 OMAHA s u l p
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Thrilling—but Dangerous— Playgrounds of Yesterday
Anyone visiting a childhood home or elementary school will probably say that things seemed bigger in their memories. The difference in visual perspective between children and much-taller adults can explain some of this—or maybe it’s the psychological effect of expanding one’s metaphorical horizons. Some things, however, really were grander in decades past, like taller, steeper, and faster pieces of playground equipment. Pat Slaven, a retired park planner for Omaha’s parks and recreation department, said the desire for greater safety led to the demise of old standards like tall jungle gyms and monkey bars over a thin layer of sand, metal slides that could heat up to 189 degrees (according to the University of Northern Iowa’s National Program For Playground Safety), swings that flung riders nearly horizontal, and spinners with centrifugal force that left children desperately hanging on. “As we renovated playgrounds, we had to replace all equipment that no longer met national safety standards,” he said. “More often than not, this wasn’t very popular with the public—basically, parents who grew up with the old equipment.” Tall “rocket” climbers, usually three levels high, were especially popular, Slaven said. “Kids loved them. Some hung out of the uppermost level like a clubhouse; much consternation when we had to take them out,” he said. However, he added, some parents disliked the climbers because they couldn’t fit through the narrow openings of platforms when attempting to retrieve stubborn children. The climbers are gone from public parks today, but “I believe there’s a part of one of these rockets at Rockbrook Park. They readapted it to be an entrance feature, next to the sign on Paddock Road,” Slaven said. Sharon Mann has fond memories of what other kids could only dream of: living in a park. Her family occupied the apartment atop the pavilion in Benson Park when her father, Robert Polen, who worked for the city in the 1950s and 1960s, served as caretaker.
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“I lived at the park about six years but my family was the caretaker for over 20 years,” she said. 60 PLUS • MARCH/APRIL 2022
Mann said her favorite feature was the park’s tall wooden swings. “It was so much fun to see how high you could go and then jump off the swing and not get hurt. I still love swinging… it is very relaxing,” she said. “I made many friends down at the swings that first summer and I have stayed in touch with many of them to this day.” Benson Park has a full complement of contemporary play structures today, but the swing set Mann remembers from more than 50 years ago is long gone. At least one similar set still survives. “Spring Lake Park in South Omaha still has one of the tall swing sets. It was repainted and probably [given] new swings when the park was renovated about five years ago,” Slaven said. Other legacy equipment is scattered around the community, he added.
“As we renovated playgrounds, we had to replace all equipment that no longer met national safety standards. More often than not, this wasn’t very popular with the public—basically, parents who grew up with the old equipment.” -Pat Slaven
“Country Club Park and Miller Park both have metal animal climbers that were kept when those playgrounds were renovated and simply repainted. These were unique enough that neighbors wanted to keep them. Miller Park’s is a giraffe, I think Country Club’s is a spider,” he said. “The merry-go-rounds— they went by many names—were also popular. Though they were deemed unsafe due to speed and the potential for children flying off, they were eventually redesigned with a hydraulic speed control. There is one at Florence Park; it looks very similar to the old ones.” See-saws, also called teeter-totters, evolved to a safer form that prevents children from crashing to the ground. Today’s slides are usually plastic with taller side rails, and are lower to the ground as well as less steep. “Really tall slides were once popular. There is a photo of one from Hanscom Park at The Durham Museum photo archives,” Slaven said. Using the people
in the photo for scale, the height of the slide appears to be around 20 feet, about as high as the roof of a two-story house. “You’ll see why it was deemed unsafe. But so fun!” More hazardous pieces exist in memory only, like rotating swings. Slaven recalled that, “This was a T-shaped structure with a swing on either side of the post. Kids would sit in the swings and parents or other kids would pull the swings to pivot around the post. Eventually the kids were sent very high and fast due to centrifugal force.” He continued, “This was my personal favorite. Not so much for my nephew, who lost his grip and flew out of the seat, thus illustrating why they all had to be removed, eventually.” Playground nostalgia is strong, judging by the more than 100 responses to an inquiry posted in the Omaha History
Club Facebook group. Some members shared good memories of steep slides, various spinning contraptions, and climbing structures all over town—along with some less-fun recollections of injuries; others talked about modernday holdouts like tall metal slides at Glenwood Lake Park in Glenwood, Iowa, or merry-go-rounds in La Vista’s Central Park and Papillion’s City and Trumble Parks. Several people said they’d love to revisit those playgrounds, and bygone days, where thrill was emphasized over caution. “My own personal wish, while we were replacing all these fun things with safer ones, was that we install these in a park for adults only,” Slaven joked. “They would, of course, have to sign a waiver before playing.” Visit parks.cityofomaha.org for more information.
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“He had such a passion for art, and it was clear that he wasn’t a hobbyist.” Callie Parrott Bower. onservationist and sportsman—that’s how Thomas Hamilton lists himself on his business card. The artist of over five decades lets his work speak for itself and, while known for the stoneware pottery he creates in his Pine Pottery Studio in Council Bluffs, the 78-year-old is as likely to tell people about his love of pheasants and restoring antique cast-iron pans as he is to describe his ceramics.
for 34 years, retiring in 2002. Over the decades, he taught the basics of art and design, and two of his students were awarded the elusive Scholastic Gold Key Award for art. (Even one such award is considered a rarity over the span of three decades.)
Clay isn’t a surprising medium for Hamilton. Artists with a deep and abiding love of nature are frequently drawn to the material. He grew up in the Echo Bay area of Okoboji, Iowa, on a “great big ravine,” where his father built a home in 1947 and taught his son to appreciate nature and conserve wildlife.
Callie Parrott-Bower was one of the Lewis Central students Hamilton molded. Today, she’s age 49, and an art instructor in Kansas City who was formerly an artist with Hallmark. She considers her former teacher a mentor— and a friend.
That love of nature is evident in Hamilton’s pottery, which often includes nature-themed names in his titles and is especially distinctive for his glazes, all made according to his own top-secret color recipes. That kind of approach to color makes sense. The artist initially studied painting at Minnesota State University, Mankato, but a pottery class changed the trajectory of his degree, and career. He made a container with a domed lid for his first assignment and was immediately smitten with the material’s malleability. “Right then and there in that class, I knew clay was my medium,” Hamilton recounted. “I called my fiancee [now his wife of 50-plus years, Kathleen] and said, ‘I just changed my major.’ I never regretted that.” He quickly graduated to working on what he then called the “spinning thing,” earning his bachelor’s degree in 1967 from MSU Mankato, and then a master’s in 1971 in psychology and clay from the University of Northern Iowa. In the meantime, he began his teaching career in Council Bluffs at Lewis Central High School, where he taught
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Teaching, for him, was akin to pottery. “It’s like molding clay,” Hamilton observed. “You work on it and refine it—and it turns into something.”
“I still call him Mr. Hamilton,” she said with a laugh, crediting him with turning her into an artist. “He provided a really strong foundation in visual art. He had such a passion for art, and it was clear that he wasn’t a hobbyist. He found a way outside the classroom to be engaged in the creative process while teaching full time. The one fed the other.” For Hamilton, it was the clay that fed his passion. “It’s the push and the pull, the cutting and the tearing,” he explained. “And it’s not done until you say it’s done.” The ceramist often makes art in multiples, such as his “Mysterious” series, which pays homage to nature’s wonders such as sunsets and waterfalls. He created “Mysterious Sunrise,” for example, on a dull March day. The piece is dark along the edges, but features a bolt of white peeking out from the more somber colors. There is also his “Square Fare” series, which includes different designs on fiveby-five-inch ceramic squares. “I just fell in love with the form,” Hamilton said. “Sometimes it’s about the surface, and sometimes it’s about the texture. They are miniature glaze experiments.”
Glaze remains of preeminent importance for the artist. “People refer to me as the ‘glaze potter,’” he chuckled. “My peers know. They can recognize my work.” Indeed, one collector broke a piece during a move. He brought it to a different potter to see if it could be repaired, and that potter immediately identified its maker. “He looked at the man and said, ‘That’s a Hamilton blue!’” recounted the artist. Friend and colleague Marcia JoffeBouska has known Hamilton since 1978, when both joined the fledgling Artists’ Cooperative Gallery as founding members. She deeply appreciates his distinctive approach to color. “He considers glazes to be key,” she said. “As a mixed media artist, I can relate to his love of color and his unique mixtures. It’s a methodological approach to the surface.” That talent works well in other areas of Hamilton’s life: restoring vintage cast-iron pans. He and Kathleen run a side business called the “Cast Iron Guy and Gal,” for which he maintains a Facebook page. “I’ve cooked on cast iron my whole life, and I started doing this about 15 years ago and have cleaned and sold around 6,000 pieces,” Hamilton said. He and Kathleen sell their wares on Craigslist and offer them at several flea markets throughout the year. Hamilton also still teaches from his Pine Pottery Studio, situated on five acres in Council Bluffs. He leads adult classes and workshops, offering instruction for beginners and more advanced pottery students alike. “I’m still teaching,” he said. “It’s a payback for the community.” Joffe-Bouska agrees with her decadeslong friend. “He’s a real resource for the community and has touched a lot of people and made art so accessible for so many. He’s larger than life.” Visit thomashamiltonpottery.com for more information.
Molding Lives & Clay THE HALFCENTURY CAREER OF CERAMIST THOMAS H A MILTON
“Right then and there in that class, I knew clay was my medium.” Thomas Hamilton
60+ PROFILE // STORY BY KIM CARPENTER PHOTOGRAPHY BY BILL SITZMANN // DESIGN BY DEREK JOY
" I REALIZED IT WAS GOOD TO GET OUT OF YOUR BRAIN AND INTO YOUR BODY. " JUDGE JOSEPH TROIA // 62 //
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OIA R T H P E S O J E JUDG
T 78 A G N O R T S G STILL GOIN
60+ ACTIVE LIVING STORY BY JEFF LACEY PHOTOGRAPHY BY BILL SITZMANN DESIGN BY DEREK JOY
MARCH/APRIL 2022 • 60 PLUS
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// 60+ ACTIVE LIVING //
udge Joseph Troia retired from the bench in 2015 after 35 years of public service. Troia was appointed to the Nebraska district court in 1991 and was a well-known judge in Nebraska who presided over several high profile cases during his tenure. But the rigors of a demanding career eventually ran their course, and it was time to transition into a well-earned retirement. Troia thought it was important to stay active. He found the solution was to double down on activities that he enjoyed and felt would keep him healthy. He participates in a steady stream of activities, including heavy servings of golf and tennis. Looking at Troia’s weekly schedule, one might find the phrase ‘staying active’ too light a characterization. He can recite a litany of pastimes, spanning decades, that he’s done over the years: he started playing softball and tennis in the 1970s, and basketball in the 1990s (he played tennis over lunch, so it didn’t interfere with family time); he has golfed steadily over the last few decades; he regularly listens to live music, and attends athletic events such as Creighton basketball games. Now in his 78th year, his schedule is as full as ever. His tennis schedule alone would tire some half his age; he plays an average of four days a week. Troia plays with one group of friends on Tuesdays and Thursdays at City of Omaha’s Hanscom Tennis Center, and another on Sundays and/or Wednesdays at Miracle Hill Tennis Center. The people he plays with range from their 60s all the way to 88 (“That guy’s coming back from an injury,” Troia explained). His self-described court style is infinitely practical: “Chase the lobs, hit winners… try not to rally back and forth.” His golf schedule is nearly as rigorous. Troia plays with a group of 12 others in varying rotations a few times a week, as the weather holds. He belongs to Oak Hills Country Club, but also eagerly plays at the municipal courses on Tara Hills and Eagle Hills. The point, for Troia, is being out on the course. A natural competitor, he occasionally plays for quarter skins, but is often out to challenge himself as much as anyone. “A lot of times, I am just trying to break 90,” Troia explained with a chuckle. In the last few years, Troia has been a part of what he describes as a battle of sorts between two groups he describes // 64 //
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as “The Golden Oldies” and “The Brat Pack,” with the former consisting of golfers in Troia’s age bracket, and the latter consisting of a group of 30-somethings. “We won about three years ago, and then we did it again, and the young guys won. Good times.” Other experiences have produced fond memories only in retrospect: Troia recalled one outing at Shoreline Golf Course in Carter Lake, Iowa, when the Midwest weather complicated things. “About 10 years ago [at Shoreline] when we started playing it was over 40 degrees, but the temperature dropped, and by the end it was about 20 degrees with the severe windchill. The weather went south, and so did the round, I guess.” Troia’s habit of staying active was developed early in life. He played baseball and basketball in high school, and after law school (he graduated in 1969 from the University of Tulsa), he started engaging in a variety of recreational pastimes, including playing softball and golf. He realized that the demands of the legal profession required him to find an outlet that engaged him in different ways. “I realized it was good to get out of your brain and into your body,” Troia explained. Sports were a way for him to engage his brain and physical self, and they allowed him a healthy way to socialize. The habits he formed over the years have served him well in retirement. Greg Schatz, a fellow judge who retired from the Omaha district court in July 2021, has known Troia since high school and plays golf with him regularly. He thinks that the energy output Troia demonstrates isn’t only impressive, it’s inspiring. “He’s kind of my hero,” Schatz explained. “I can’t believe how active he is. We’ll go out to listen to music, and at 10 I’m ready to go home, and he’ll stay. He’s like the Energizer Bunny.” Schatz said that Troia competes with a sense of joy and gratitude. “He’s competitive, but without being overbearing,” Schatz explained. When Schatz was approaching retirement, he saw Troia as a valuable resource, and said Troia’s primary message to him was to keep moving. “The thing he said that stuck with me was ‘you need something to do, or you’ll start to rust.’” Troia’s attitude about keeping rust-free is in alignment with what health experts know. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, staying active later in life reduces the risk of bone-breakage, heart disease, and high blood pressure. And, according to the American Cancer Society, the most physically active people have as much
as a 25% lower risk of developing colon tumors than largely inactive people. Conversely, reductions in physical stamina and strength in seniors are primarily due to decreased physical activity, and being inactive puts seniors at risk for chronic diseases. According to the CDC, in a study of adults 65 to 74 years old, there was a 10% difference reported between inactive adults and active adults when it came to having one or more chronic diseases and having none. That percentage holds true for adults over 75 as well. Troia and his tennis colleagues are bucking a national trend towards increased inactivity. A report by the surgeon general shows that currently, by age 75, nearly one in three men and one in two women engage in no physical activity. The CDC reports that if you are over 65 and have no limiting health conditions, moderate intensive aerobic activity at least 150 minutes a week, and musclestrengthening activity at least two days a week, are ideal. Another benefit of Troia’s rigorous schedule doesn’t involve the heart and lungs at all; it comes from the fact that all those lobs and backhands are returned by pals. The National Institute of Mental Health reports that about 6 million American men suffer from depression every year, and, according to the National Institute on Aging, loneliness and isolation are associated with higher rates of depression. Troia is not only keeping his body healthy when he laces up his shoes for a tennis match; he is keeping his soul in shape, too. Troia’s schedule might make it seem as though he is some kind of human perpetual motion machine, but this isn’t entirely the case (“Sometimes I still spend too much time in my chair watching old westerns,” he said), but he counterbalances his slower days with the sincere belief that engaging with the world in ways that challenge a person and keep them sharp–physically and mentally–are the keys to a life worth living. “You’ve got to have purpose,” he said. In Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, the character Gratiano suggests that inactivity is antithetical to being fully alive. “With mirth and laughter,” Gratiano says, “let old wrinkles come.” Troia would probably add, “and throw in a nice drive from the white tees as well.”