Editor, Commonwealth:
I’m now pushing 70 years old. Lord, how time does fly.
I close my eyes, and a sweet memory haunts my mind. Many of my childhood days I spent in City Park. It seems like only yesterday, but it was the 1960s.
The tall oak trees brought so much shade, and squirrels played in the tree tops. A woodpecker tapped on a pole. A Coke, 6 cents, oh so cold I held. So many faces with names came from far and near. Picnics, barbecues and the laughter of children filled the air.
There were movies on the grounds, games and fun. An old freight train blast echoed through the park. Tranquility. Peace. It was all there. The wading pool I loved so dear. Under the hot, humid Delta sun, I climbed up the monkey bars so high. I swung high on the swings, I swung low, free like a bird.
A pavilion sits among the presently leafless trees at the old City Park.
Carnivals came, so many I lost count. The seesaw went up and down. I played horse shoes and tether ball. Kites in the sky I did see, City Park and little me. On the bandstand, sweet music played, and the songbirds so many sang.
City Park was as pretty as a picture on a postcard. Beautiful hedges surrounded the park. Honeysuckle blooms you could smell. A game of tag, I never fell. There was ping-pong and its short net. The sliding board I went down. Lightning bugs in the night sparkled beneath the full yellow moon.
City Park, I was there in its heyday.
Now there is another new year. With time, there is always change. The footprints I left in City Park are long gone. So, too, the tree I used to climb. But there’s still the City Park sign. That’s so clear.
What used to be, I realize, won’t ever be. City Park is a memory I’ll always cling to till my dying breath.
I heard said that City Park was a graveyard long ago.
Ken Carithers
Greenwood
