Wonderful Memories

 I grew up in a city, not the country.I didn’t have open spaces and horses and cows.  BUT I did have the 155 acres of green grass, gardens, lakes and playgrounds of Washington Park. The park was one block east of my home and by 5^th or 6^th grade my friends and I could go there without adult supervision.  There was the ditch—water brought in from the South Platte River to fill the three lakes—and those lakes and two large tennis courts and a playground and the boat house on the north lake—and the island in the south lake.                                       

I walked through the park to go to youth group at Washington Park Community Methodist Church.  I learned to jump across the ditch, I took tennis lessons, I climbed trees.  It was a real freedom and so much fun.

Much has changed since I moved out of that house one block west of the park to attend college at the University of Colorado in Boulder and then onto marriage to John and establishing our own home 

But this week we took light rail to Louisiana and Pearl and walked east to the park and walked all through the places I remembered.  Much has changed but much is the same and brought back so many memories.

These flowers are in one of the gardens in the park.

I'm not sure why there are rows of kale and corn plants.  Perhaps this is a community garden and neighbors can pick the produce when it is ready.

                                       

The boat house is on the shore of the north lake, named Smith Lake.  They used to rent row boats there.  Today there is a small building nearby where they sell snacks and rent peddle boats.

We took this picture of our son Doug, now 54 years old, with his grandfather, my dad Ray Robinson.  Unfortunately, the upper level of the boathouse is now locked.  We could look in but not go in.

This statue of Wynken, Blyken and Nod--based on the poem by Eugene Field--used to be in the center of a shallow fountain.  When the fountain was dry, we could climb on the statue.  I think we took Doug a couple of times.  It has been moved to a dryland location.

                                           

This is Field's house, located in the northern part of the park.  I am standing on the porch in the photo.

This is the ditch we used to play in.  The water never ran fast so it was a safe place to try jumping from one edge to the other.  If we missed, there was no danger of drowning or being swept away.  We might get dirty, but that was all.

This island is in the south or Grasmere lake.  I was sad to see the bridge to the lake no longer exists.  We used to spend lots of time there, letting our imaginations lead us into some make-believe world.

We located several photos I have saved from times I visited the playground in the park when I was young. They are copied from old slides so they aren't really clear. But they remind me of fun times.

This shows me on the left and a neighbor, Annette, on the swings.

Here I am, on the merry go round.