Tanbark. Know what it is? You either most definitely know it, or you’ve never ever heard of it. I feel like it’s Bay Area thing. If you know of it, you know it because it’s the stuff that used to surround the play structure or jungle gym in elementary school to soften the blow when you fell from the ring bars or got thrown off the slide playing king of the mountain. It was the lava in 9 lives. It’s the stuff that you’d always get splinters from. It’s the stuff that would form mysterious quicksand-indeterminable-depth pools. When it rained–the wood chips would all float to the top and look like it was hard ground. It’s the stuff you could throw at other kids on the playground if you held the chips like you were going to skip a rock.
It seems like only a handful of people had this great stuff in their childhood, but it confounds me because when I think of Rheem Elementary, I think of tanbark (and toilet monsters and skinners and pink elephants). New federal regulations require that “surfaces under and around accessible play equipment and other play equipment in the play area shall be firm, stable and slip resistant” and that the “material shall minimize splintering, scraping, puncturing or abrading the skin when being crawled on.” Tanbark has since been replaced by more environmentally friendly materials such as chopped up old tires and recycled rubber matting. I guess skinning pine trees wasn’t very friendly.

Mother, just chillin. (Fuji Sensia 400)