Lee Andrew
Pamela Gressier
English 105
May 23rd, 2014
There And Back Again Growing up, one of my most favorite places to go as a child was the jungle gym at Wardlow Park. I was always fascinated with the jungle gyms and park, and always made it my daily personal mission to go as much as I could. However, the Wardlow Park is vastly different now then it was back when I was a little kid. From the environment to the current inhabitants, almost every aspect of the park has changed. When I was a child, Wardlow Park was the cleanest park around. It was fairly new, and all the neighborhood kids and families did their best to keep it clean. The jungle gym was cleaned and sanitized everyday, not only by park officials, but the neighborhood park goers as well. Technology wasn’t as big as it is now, and all of the kids spent their time outdoors enjoying the park. In contrast, years later, the Park is now littered with trash and ransacked with vandalism. Kids and people that grew up with the park have grown up or moved away, and the park was introduced to newer inhabitants that did not appreciate the park as much. The jungle gyms are all vandalized, and only the park officials come and clean the park, albeit not too often and not thoroughly. Wardlow Park used to be the Mecca for little league events, birthdays, summer camps, and more. As a child, I could go to the park and indulge myself in various coordinated events. I played little league baseball, had a bounce house there for my birthday, played organized basketball and soccer, and participated in the summer youth camps. Presently, the park is now a ghost town. Nobody wants to hold any organized sporting events there because the park is super dirty and littered with trash, and the baseball diamond and basketball hoops haven’t been attended to. This leaves a lot to be desired. Wardlow Park was the epicenter of the entire neighborhood, and everyone knew everyone that went there. It was a gathering of the