I have been thinking about Ottumwa during the last week, so thought I would share one of my favorite childhood memories there. This post was written long ago, but I am making a few updates.

Fun at the Park – 5-2-2013

When you were a kid did you have a favorite park?

One of my favorite parks was the one that we called Curly Slide Park or the Lagoon Park. I think that the official name was Greater Ottumwa Park. I have a lot of great memories from this park. Birthday parties, fishing with my Aunt and Uncle, play days where we just went and had a lot of fun and many other fun occasions.

I especially liked going down the giant curly slide. I wish I had a picture that showed the entire slide. It was so tall, especially for a young kid. I am halfway up the ladder right behind one of my cousins and another cousin was getting ready for the big climb at the base of the ladder.

The pictures in this post were special pictures as I was there with my Uncle Rick and my siblings and cousins and we were having a lot of fun.

My older sister was sliding with us and she had on a real stylish outfit.

We would spend a lot of time climbing up the slide and coming back down and when we got tired it was on to the other playground equipment. Swings of several types, teeter-totters, more slides and merry-go-rounds.

Here I am at the merry-go-round with two of my cousins. We would see how fast we could get the merry-go-round spinning. Of course, at this time we were taking it a bit easy as there was a little boy on the merry-go-round. It looks as if I was trying to keep my cousin from spinning the merry-go-round so that the little boy wouldn’t fall down. Maybe :-).

In the background of the picture you can barely make out a log that was carved into the shape of a car. How cool was that?

Of course, I would always gravitate back to the big yellow curly slide.

Can you tell that I was having fun? A big smile on my face and my hair blowing in the wind as I flew down the slide. Oh those carefree days long ago.

I still like the feel of my hair blowing in the wind. Sometimes you just have to open up the windows and go for a drive in the country and let the wind blow.

Wildwood Park was another of my favorite parks, but that is a different story :-).

Did you have a favorite park where you grew up? What were your favorite types of playground equipment?

Steven

p.s. I checked on Google Maps and the slide is no longer there.