Why Stop Playing Around?
a shout Out to the Parks of My Youth
Regular readers of this blog will notice that I often wander down memory lane but don’t live there. For me focusing in on the past seems like a sure-fire method to pick up more baggage than a “Sampson-ite Storeroom” and dragging baggage around slows down the seeking peace and joy train. However, if I open up the baggage and take out the lessons and then let the rest spin on the lost luggage carousel at the airport things seem to work out….so let’s risk a little of that shall we?
There were lots of parks in the greater West Burlington and Burlington Iowa area. I suppose I spent some time spinning, sliding, chasing blowing paper plates, sweating, and scraping up my actual and emotional knees in almost all of them. For now I’m going to feature only five. thinking there’s a statute of limitations on some things let’s start with North Hill Park and Mosquito Park. These are two parks on the North side of town. North Hill Park is the first place I saw some of my high school classmates experience the ill-effects of underaged drinking. It was a classic case of Boone’s Farm meets Ant hill. The lesson learned learned that night was bellbottomed cuffed pants could hold some liquid but it wasn’t the fashion statement that stud was looking for. It was a lesson in peer pressure and comparing how much one person could consume verses another. I wish I’d remembered that more often in the upcoming years.
Mosquito park was a place a couple of my friends ran to hide after egging some cars near the highway. we eluded Burlington’s finest there, however that park got the “mosquito” name for a reason as we hid in some decorative hedges and the sparrow-sized insects pretended like it was all you can eat and the “Golden/human Coral.” Oh and it’s a great place to view the Mighty Mississippi River from that side of town as well.
Perkins Park
No not named after the restaurant —the Railroad persons…. Was maybe the best sledding park as you could start at the top of the hill and wind up across a street quite some distance away. This park also had the second best curly-Q slide and this teeter totter. That was level so you floated back and forth as opposed to up and down where one person could leave you hanging. Oh and that’s a lesson I learned from teeter-totters you need some balance to make the experience work most the time and it’s generally not a great idea to leave someone. Else hanging…. It doesn’t go in-noticed and you’ll soon get hung out yourself…paybacks are…as they say a bit(you know the rest )
The other neat thing about Perkins is that it had these two short foot bridges that were fun to run over or ride your bike over or you could hang out under the bridge even long before the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Dankwrdt Park
Now it was connected to my favorite park and probably would have gotten more credit if it didn’t have it be compared to that offerrng. Looking back the strangest feature of this park was that it had some really good slides and swings, however its highlight for many was a decommissioned jet fighter. Yes… right there in the park there was a sealed up jet that you could climb all over and imagine you were shooting down enemy fighters, stopping tanks, and of course we were talking every enemy from World War I on because that’s what our parents and grandparents taught us. I sometimes shake at the fact that I was thrilled to imagine destroying other humans and wonder when we will stop teaching our children that military power can be fun. Evidence suggests we have some distance to travel.
Crapo Park
This park had it all. Band Shell,-fountain—winding roads—real Native American trails-the best curly-Q slide—a double slide with a fast straight and a double hump option. It had a skating/duck/goldfish pond and a statue of some guy on a horse (I don’t remember who….
There were some tennis courts and horseshoe pits. I’m not sure whether the pool, the little amusement park, and the put-put golf and roller rink were officially considered. Crapo…but as a kid and as a teen-Ager I did. Crapo. Was. A place where we went to hang out as teens and did some well teen-age kid stuff and we now thank the good lord there was no internet then. For a dozen. Years that park was a place to free my imagination at times, however there was one experience in the park that I valued above all others and it may have been mine alone.
There is a horseshoe curve. In one of the park streets and a stone wall keeps vehicles including. Bicycles from launching river-wards. That same street winds around and hits the main drag though the park. This banked horseshoe lane is a one-way path so I would gather just as much speed down. That road and then pull my limbs tight into my body coasting at a tremendous pace through the turn. The speed would gthen carry me quite some way until if I ignored the stop sign I could roll all the way. To where the World War II Two anti-aircraft guns stood as sentinels. What? Mor weapons? Yes…but by the time I was riding my bike and owned a 10-speed I didn’t have any desire to play army—also… I had developed a skeptical mind and my curiosity led to me to wonder if we were expecting an invasion from Illinois.
What did Ilearn at Crapo? There were. A lot of experiencing out in the world and some of them. You had. To approach on your own. Some experiences you shared with others and some…well you will forget about or laugh about later in life. Oh and that if Peoria decided to attack you should always be locked and loaded.
So in these parks I learned how to play. I learned how to explore. I learned what my body could, could not, should, and should not do….or at least not do often. Looking back I might have learned that its okay to run real fast and enjoy the coasting parts too. I might have figured out from the roller rink that sometimes going around in circles in life can be fun as long as you are with the right. People. I learned how to fall down- wipe the dirt off—and try again—but there were times in life I forget that too…. Mostly I learned that there are times and places in life that you can approach with curious enthusiasm and regardless of what happened that day there would be other days and maybe that is the lesson that has helped the most in seeking peace and joy.
Now tomorrow is a short day so the blog will be short but meaningful… I’m sharing an 8-line rhyme and two song links….one features a “high-school and park” theme and the other is a recent release from a very talented creative soul who I’ve met just monthsago…. Just like the parks were a place that captured my emotions…this song does that as well… so stay tuned and tonight…. Spring forward in spirit and on the space-time continuum … Peace-out
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