The playground was home to some of my most traumatic memories of grade school.

Incident No. 1: It was before school, and I was probably in first grade. I was riding the merry-go-round, which was being pushed way too fast for any unsupervised group of kids to be riding.

In a split second, my shoe hit the ground just enough for it to fly off — and under the playground equipment. I hopped off, terrified both that 1. my shoe would never be recovered if I didn’t go in immediately, and 2. I would be decapitated by the merry-go-round if I went in after my shoe.

I hung around for a few minutes until the bell rang, the merry-go-round screeched to a stop, and I got my fashionable PayLess shoe back on my foot.

Incident No. 2: A couple of years later, I vividly remember a spring day — one of those days you say to yourself, “I can’t imagine it being any more perfect outside than it is right now.”

I was reveling in the weather when I realized it wasn’t just the sun warming the top of my head — I also had been, well, let’s say “bombed” by an overhead bird.

The next few minutes went something like this, as I made my way across the playground and toward the restroom to wash up:

Squeamish girl: “Ewwwww … you got pooped on by a bird!”

Random guy: “Dude, a bird pooped on you!”

Random, louder guy: “Terry got pooped on by a bird!”

Well-meaning girl who didn’t realize she’s making things worse: “Um, Terry, I think you got pooped on by a bird.”

Despite those memories, the playground was still one of the better places to be at school. Reading Lindsey Slater’s story on page 16, it’s good to see some of the old standbys like that are still popular.

Here’s hoping the birds have moved on to new games, though.