Liberty Park makes my heart sing.
It's the site of the old farmland where Brigham Young would send the men and boys out to farm while he kept the womenfolk urban in the city in his famous city blocks.
Later on, Grandma Peterson, nee Nellie Bull, who was born January 26, 1886, would take her little brood there to play, to skate, to swim, to picnic. Maybe she played there. I'm not so sure about that.Later, my mother won a swimming suit as a champion swimmer, swimming at the old Liberty Park pool and won my father's heart playing tennis with him at the Liberty Park courts. He took some chick named "Ruby" to the school dances, but he married my mother. Liberty Park.
We spent many days as children at Liberty Park. First, during the war I lived with Grandma with my mother at 807 Bryan Avenue then at at 938 Kensington until first grade. And during the summer, we spent lots of time up visiting Grandma, so again, Liberty Park was home away from home. I love that place.
In those days, the slides were metal, slippery and probably thirty feet high. The swings were numerous and probably twenty-five feet tall. It was crazy-wonderful there. Sometimes we'd swim, but usually just run wild through the playground and have picnic lunches at the long picnic tables under the trees.
Shock of shocks, the playground I remember at Liberty Park is gone. It's now moved north of the tennis courts and swimming pool and it, too, is small, safe and slow.
Liberty Park looks a lot the same. The trees are big and beautiful. The swimming pool is the same pretty much and the tennis courts are still there. The playground is beautiful and brightly colored. But what happened?
It's safe!!! And it's for four-year-olds, and younger.
1 comment:
That stinks... I remember going down the big slide and how scary it was! I was so proud that I conquered my fears each time I went down it!
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