Okay a little off subject this week. Not much about writing. More about history. Earlier this fall I went for a Saturday drive. I took my camera and went to one of my favorite places. Doling Park in North Springfield.
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| Doling Park arcade |
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| one of the many stone walls |
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| Front wall of skating rink |
And then there was the roller rink. All that is left is the front wall. Weird. My mother and father met there. My dad was quite the skater according to my mom. I celebrated many a birthday party there skating to tunes played by a real organist; not any of that recorded stuff.
And there is a cave. It is said it goes quite a ways under the city of Springfield. There is a fence across the front so you can't go spelunking.
Things seem to change so fast. The park doesn't look like anything it used to. It's very hard to describe places that were so important in our lives sometimes.
Perhaps that is where writing comes in. We are attempting to capture a moment in time before it's all gone and there's nothing left except a few old pictures
and a bunch of rocks.
Great post, Wanda. I love the story about your mom and dad.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Mom said dad could out skate anybody. I remember finding his skates way in the back of their closet and asking mom about them.
ReplyDeleteNice post. Dunnegan Park in Bolivar is my childhood stomping ground. Lot s of good memories there :)
ReplyDeleteGood Post. For me it was Rock Springs Park in Alton , Illinois.
ReplyDeleteYou brought it all back.
I don't know what Doling Park was like when I was a kid--we never went there. I have a feeling that my mind is going to be straying to the old neighborhood tonight, though. You've made us all nostalgic!
ReplyDeleteSharon Keeling Davis
I grew up just a few blocks from Riverside Park/Zoo in Wichita, KS. It was free and such a fun place to take my siblings. I was the oldest; my sister was 2 1/2 yrs. younger; my brothers were 10 and 12 years younger. On one of our visits, my youngest brother (about 5 at the time) kept calling "Ginny, come push me on the swing" or "Ginny, come push me on the merry-go-round." Another kid in the park (about 11 or 12) told my brother "A Ginny is a mule." True-----but, it didn't set well with Mike as he thought he was calling MOI a mule. Mike took after the kid with murderous intent. Took all the strength I had to hold him back--he was small but fiesty. :-) To this day, My brother is my biggest champion--ALWAYS in my corner.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in school, I remember spending the last day of the schoolyear at Doling Park. They had rides then. It was like an amusement park. Such fun memories. Nothing like that now. Memories are the best. Thanks for making me remember a fun time.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing, Wanda. I miss those kinds of places. A shame our kids don't have those same type of memories to grow up with. Maybe they'd spend less time shooting people.
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