Going back to the basics of fun

Mark Hoxie takes pride in the fact that he has spent the last 14 years helping kids in Huntington Beach cool off and play in the mud.

It’s nice to have a job in the outdoors, said the manager of Adventure Playground in the city’s Central Park.

“It’s fun working with kids,” Moxie said. “I like working with my staff, too — with different generations — and being outside.”

The lifelong Huntington Beach resident can remember the first day he started working at the park. Things have not changed much over the last decade. As a matter of fact, almost nothing has changed.

“The park has been virtually the exact same thing the whole time I’ve been here,” he said.

And that is kind of fitting for the kids’ play park, geared toward playing the old-fashioned way.

Kids wondering what it was like for Huckleberry Finn rafting up the Mississippi River can raft across a tiny pond on a plank of wood and get an opportunity to use something the modern world of technology seems to have stifled in children: their imagination.

For only $3 per child — a fraction of the cost of admission for other Orange County amusement parks — kids get the opportunity to zip line across the pond, traverse a rope bridge, brave the mudslide and practice their carpentry skills.

Because of the use of real hammers, nails and saws, children age 8 or younger are required to have an adult with them in the building area.

Donna Elliott of Orange assisted her five nieces and nephews in the construction of several wooden sculptures — at least what could be put together with the three nails and a hammer provided to each child. Children requesting more supplies have to present two used nails or four pieces of trash to a staff member for one new nail.

Getting back to a time before Nintendo, getting dirty, exploring nature and breaking things has become a vital and neglected aspect of childhood, Elliott said.

“This is what being a child is all about,” she said. “Kids now are all a bunch of idiots. They’re so into computer games these days that anything you can do to bring them back to the old days, do it.”

And the kids agreed.

“It’s fun to work with my cousins and my family,” said Elliott’s 9-year-old niece, Kayla Howard.

For Elliott’s nephew Adam, the joy was a bit more primitive.

“I like getting my shoes dirty,” he said. “It’s fun to get sand in them because it bothers you.”

The key ingredient for a park offering a hands-on experience for kids using hammers, nails, zip lines, tire swings and wood rafts is safety, Moxie said.

“We have five [city] staff in the park at a time to make sure no one gets hurt,” Moxie said.

Just remember, you can’t experience the fun without a pair of tennis shoes.