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Going to the Park


   Due to a severe case of acute of braindeadness, the little stories posted here are not in any order but rather as events pop into my feeble little mind.

A stone structure in Highland Park that we used to call "The Fort"   
This photo is the property of "The East New York Project"

        Oh how we loved the summer!  East New York was a concrete jungle.  One would really have to search to find a tree.  But alas!  A couple of miles north of our house was a sanctuary known as Highland Park. It was called that because it was the highest elevation in Brooklyn.  I think it had something to do with the last Ice Age.  There were thousands of trees, hills and even a huge reservoir.  It had a playground and a big concrete circle that had a giant sprinkler that they would turn on in the summer so kids could cool off.  (In the winter it was an ice skating rink.)
        Raymond (my brother) and I would walk the couple of miles to the park every chance we got.  As soon as we got there it was like we entered another world.  We immediately headed up the hill to the wooded area where we would find the best, tallest trees to climb. We would play "look-out" and spy on the kids in the playground far below.  When we got tired of climbing trees and rolling down the hill, we headed to "The Bridge".  It was probably our favorite place in the whole park.  It  was made of huge rocks and had a wide path on the top and what looked like an old dried-up river bed below.  We would start at the bottom and climb up the rock wall to get to the top.  We would pretend we were climbing up a huge castle wall.  (It would be interesting to note here that many years later, I drove to the park and went to the old bridge.......it was only about eight or ten feet to the top.)  Under the bridge was our hide out.  We pretended it was a cave and we would find boxes and stuff to pile up at the entrance where we would fight off the attacking Indians.
        When we fought off all the Indians, we would walk to the reservoir which was at the very top of the park.  What a view!  From there you could see almost all of East New York, which made us realize how much of a walk we had ahead of us to get back home.  But you know what?.....it was always worth it.  Wow! another great day growing up in Brooklyn in the '50s

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