noun
AN INDECISIVE PLANK MADE FOR JOY
This basic piece of playground equipment allows children to experience a momentary release from gravity, followed by a return to the ground. Unlike the everyday trampoline which accomplishes a similar objective, the teeter totter builds a sense of teamwork, as it takes two to teet-tott.
“Teeter totter” (pronounced tee-ter tah-ter) is in dialogue with onomatopoeia, although the object creates neither a “tee” nor “tah” sound. But the very sound of the word evokes a lack of linearity… going back and forth, hovering on a “let’s face it, this could go either way” experience. In a sense, it’s much more descriptive than its ancestral nomenclature, the see-saw, unless you can think of the person on the high end making a declaration of discovery followed by loss.
Four Scenes from a Teeter Totter
Two children gleefully alternating going up and down.
Two kids exploring their collective ability to balance at an equilibrium.
One kid inevitably getting distracted and forgetting their responsibility as a shareholder in this situation, jumping off the teeter totter and inadvertently letting their partner slam to the ground, at the very least incurring an injury that could bring new meaning to the expression “rear-ended”, but with the likely complications of jammed wrists, a bitten tongue, or headache.
A group of kids dares a brave, young child to sit on one end while they apply the full force of their composite weight on the other side, promising a elegant glide through the air over to the monkey bars. What starts as a bold 4th grade experiment in astrophysics ends in a broken arm and increased hypertension for the recess monitor.