RATING THE PLAYGROUNDS

For Christian Berens and his friends, having fun is as simple as plunging down a spiral slide or taking a dizzying spin on a merry-go-round.

So when the Southeast Missourian decided to rate the Cape Girardeau city and county playgrounds, it was only natural to turn to the "experts" -- 8-year-old Christian and his buddies Michael Zimmer, Sara Berkbigler and Sarah Gosche, all 9 years old.

The four are third-graders at St. Vincent de Paul Grade School.

On a recent Friday morning fueled by a healthy dose of spring sunshine and aided by Christian's mom, Carol, I packed the kids into my mini van and headed out to inspect five park playgrounds: Capaha, Cherokee, Arena, Cape County North Park and Cape County South Park.

The kids, who were out of school that day, checked out only the major playgrounds in the parks -- those which better suited their age group.

A Missourian photographer followed us around to record the momentous event, much to the delight of the kids.

They swung right into the task, soaring on swings and racing down slides. For Christian and his friends, fast things were in, slow things were out.

After several hours of cavorting at the playgrounds, the kids unanimously singled out Cape County South Park as the best and Cape County North Park as their least favorite.

But there was no unanimous agreement in ranking the other three parks' playgrounds.

Sara and Sarah both ranked Arena Park as the second-best playground, followed by Cherokee and Capaha in the third and fourth positions.

Michael ranked Capaha second, followed by Cherokee and Arena parks.

Christian singled out Cherokee as having the second-best playground, followed by Arena and Capaha.

Sara, Michael and Sarah felt Cherokee's playground was third best. The two girls and Christian ranked Capaha's playground near the swimming pool as fourth best.

The youngsters offered no shortage of comments on why they liked the large, pea-graveled playground at Cape County South Park the best.

"This is my favorite one because it has a lot more stuff," said Sara. "It has that big thing," she added, referring to a stair-filled tower from which kids can reach four different slides, including a spiral one and a wavy one.

"I like climbing up them and going down the slides," she said.

"This is my favorite," said Michael. "For one thing, you can go up really high and it has a lot of slides that are fast, and it has the merry-go-round."

Sarah said she likes "everything" about the Cape County South Park playground. "I especially like the slide, that swirly one. I also liked the chains" that can be climbed.

Sarah said she likes the playground because "it's big and you have a big variety of what you can play on."

"It's bigger and it has a lot more things than the others," said Christian. "I liked the merry-go-round, and the big, long, bumpy slide."

As to Cape County North Park, the kids complained that the playground there was too small, with only one slide -- a routine one at that -- monkey bars and a couple of swings, and was more appropriate for younger children.

"It's babyish," said Sarah.

"It does not have enough equipment for one thing and it is not as big as the other parks," said Michael. "It's more for little kids."

He said the monkey bars were rusty. "They hurt your hands."

At Arena Park, the merry-go-round was a hit. "It gets you dizzy," said Michael.

"Hoppy," the old locomotive, was another popular attraction. "It has all sorts of stuff to climb on," said Michael after he and the others had finished scaling the now-silent locomotive.

Christian said he likes the train the best. "You can go on top of it," he explained.

At Cherokee, the tall, spiral slide was an instant hit with all four. Michael said he liked it because "you go fast."

"I like those fireman poles," he added. He said the swings, however, were "too small to sit on."

Christian said he liked the rings and the bar on the swing set.

He also singled out the slide for praise, describing it as "long and curly."

"I like the bar and the big slide the best," said Sarah. Concerning the bar, she pointed out: "You can do backward flips and stuff."

The slide was also a hit with Sara, along with the swinging gate, which she described as "that thing that goes around in circles."

At the Capaha Park playground, the swings were the big draw, particularly the tire swing.

As far as these judges were concerned, the slides weren't so hot. "They don't go fast enough," said Sara.

"I like playing on the tire swing," said Christian after he and his friends took turns riding on the twisting tire.

Michael said the tire swing's great because "this one gets you really dizzy, and I like that." He added that he likes the regular swings as well because they "go really high."

"You can laugh a lot with it," said Sarah. "You can relax and have a good time with it. You can get dizzy with it. I like the tire the best."

But all that playground stuff can only go so far. As I transported the crew back to Christian's mom's car shortly after noon, Christian and his friends were already thinking about what they were going to do for the rest of the day. No doubt, you have to plan for all that fun.

I had to go back to the newsroom. Still, I couldn't help wondering, could I tag along? After all, there might be a story in all that fun.