A Walk in the Park...

 Visiting with old friends lately and the ever onward march of time has led to old memories. My wife tells me I only have one more year to refer to my self as a "middle age man" and then I must begin saying "elderly." My soon to be elderly self walked around old Chambers Park and played with grandkids leaving their foot prints in the same places I left mine when I played there as a child. 

Chambers Park was built in 1939 by the National Youth Administration, a component of FDR's New Deal that provided work for young people 16-25. Many generations of locals have used this park which has had many changes to a playground, wading pool, scout houses, pavilions, the old Rock House which you can still rent, tennis courts, monkey cage and in recent years a splash pad replacing the wading pool.     

One change I note is the little creek that flows through the park. It had moving water, very clear on the day we visited. There had been a rain the day before and I don't know where the headwaters of this stream are but when I was a kid they seemed to be inside the old Lufkin Foundry that is across Feagin St. from the park. Seems I recall family reunions, birthday parties and picnics held at the tables in the park. There were many kids and I recall a popular shoe at the time was a white Keds sneaker that was a low cost knock off of a more expensive Chuck Taylor our parents would not buy. If you stepped in this creek with a white Ked on it immediately became a black Ked due to the dirty water flow from the foundry. 

Thankfully the clean water act of 1972 passed. It cut down on the amount of Keds going to landfills. Not so thankfully for the workers involved, Lufkin Foundry with it's early beginnings as a buggy company was bought by General Electric and as these acquisitions often go was mostly shut down. What ever the cause this stream flows clear despite recent attempts to turn back some of the environmental gains made by past leaders. There will be no more black Keds and on this day I saw no kids in the creek.

I mentioned the monkey cages. Thankfully like the water, monkeys are treated a bit better also. Seems I can remember in the mid to late 60s cigarette smoking house wives pushing baby carriages and watching bigger kids play in the park while thumping butts in the monkey cage. The monkey ate them. This was before the advent of the very fine local zoo we have and I bet there were no primate experts on the city staff at the time. Probably an interesting historical mystery to pursue would be where is the monkey buried?  

Things have changed. Looks like for the better and even though I'm older we left nothing but footprints.