ILYPANTS.NET
Notes To My Kids: Little Stories About Grown Up Kids
At the old house on Monterrey one could climb over the back fence and walk into the park on Sandy Lane if you wanted to. And while we did not get to the park that way I took you two kids there many times. That park however began to show its age and sometimes some less than law abiding citizens went there at odd times. Thus, over time we went there less and less.
And we stopped going there almost entirely when the city built a park at the end of Morrison north of I-30. It was new indeed and thus we started calling it “The New Park”, the Sandy Lane Park became “The Old Park” as a result. Indeed The New Park has a name but we never called it that. And thus over the years to come that name stuck to that pleasant piece of earth not so far from the old house.
The New Park was a fun place for you two each time we went there. Unlike older parks which had some swings and a slide this one had swings and wooden structures kids could climb on, all nestled up against a small forest of post oak trees that was part of the Cross Timbers that draped Fort Worth’s east side.
I would push you two on the swings and you would in turn climb over the wooden jungle gyms that were there. Jane being ever more coordinated sometimes amazed me at where she would climb even when she was little. Roger on the other was more conventional but enjoyed the stuff just as much. And sometimes we would take your little bicycles and you two would peddle up and down the long and curved sidewalk, going back and forth until you got tired.
Besides the exercise we call got there sometimes we took a picnic lunch there and ate on the picnic tables underneath one of the big trees by the sidewalk. Of course sometimes I took a cold beer with me on a hot day in the summer. Since the park adjoined someone’s horse farm we of course petted the horses sometimes too. That little park was full of things to do and all of the things we did built many, many memories of how you two were when you were little.
But of course you both grew up, moved away, and we did not go there any more like we once did. But that is not totally true either you see. As I got older sometimes I stopped by there on the way home even though I had long since moved from that side of town. I would pull into the parking lot and if no one was there I would get out and walk around with the memories of when we were there flooding back into the frame of the present time. I could again see you two clearly running around and having fun as if you were little once more. Even though you two were not with me you were there in a sense. It was as if the echoes of your childhood being were still there around the swings and the jungle gym. Each time I go by there I feel these things. In a way I am transported back in time and I feel like I am home and am not as old. It is a place that is pleasant, comforting, and filled with good. All of the parks in our lives should be that way you know.
And so The New Park will remain with me always. A place filled with many cherished memories of your young and little years. Memories of the many good, fun, and exciting times we spent together under its shady trees on sunny days years ago.