Park Memories

I recently ran across some pictures that I had not seen for quite some time. Tonight I will share a couple of them along with some related pictures I have shared in the past.

While growing up in Ottumwa, Iowa, we would often go to one of the local parks.

Curly slide park, large gun, climbing, playground equipmentWe had some interesting things to play on. Here is a big military gun that we would climb on and pretend that we were shooting the enemy.

Curly slide park, large gun, climbing, playground equipmentWe also had this big ball that we would climb on.

I looked on Google Maps Street View and the two items above were no longer in the park in 2019.

Merry-Go-Round - Ottumwa, Iowa - Curly Slide Park - Playing with CousinsHowever, a very similar merry-go-round as this one was still there at the same place and also the yellow swing set that is behind it. However, the yellow swing set is now blue.

Curly Slide Park - Lagoon Park - Greater Ottumwa Park - Ottumwa, IowaThe big yellow curly slide that the park was really known for, is also not there any more. However, they still have some slides at the park. They are just not as big and are made from plastic instead of metal.

Big Curly Slide - Ottumwa, Iowa - Lagoon Park - Wind in my hairI am sure that the newer slides are much safer, but I have some great memories of sliding down the huge curly slide. I also remember how hot the slide would get on a sunny day.

I also noticed that in 2019 some of the older park equipment like monkey bars and swing sets were still there. However the teeter totters were no longer there.

Lots of memories.

Steven

Posted in Culture, Games, Memories | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lachish Chairs

This week I have been thinking about the line of chairs at Lachish.

chairs, thrones, lachish, judah, kings, length of reign, sculptureThe chairs are part of a series of sculptures at Lachish to better illustrate the history of the site.

See: New Sculptures at Lachish

chairs, thrones, lachish, judah, kings, length of reign, sculptureThis past week I have been listening to I and II Kings while out walking and have often thought of these chairs as the Kings of Judah were mentioned.

You can see in the picture above that the chair backs are of different heights. Do you know why they are different?

chairs, thrones, lachish, judah, kings, length of reign, sculptureHere is a closer view of some of the chairs. You can see that each one has information about one of the Kings of Judah. The height of the back of the chair indicates how long the king reigned.

Another thing I noticed was that the chair representing the last King of Judah is on the right end of the line. This is because Hebrew is written right to left.

chairs, thrones, lachish, judah, kings, length of reign, sculptureThe chairs are lined up along the palace wall. Lachish was the second largest city in Judah and had a palace for the King to stay in when he visited.

chairs, thrones, lachish, judah, kings, length of reign, sculptureOf course, many memories of digging at Lachish also came back to me while listening to the text of I and II Kings. Although Lachish is not often mentioned in the Bible it was a very significant city during the Divided Kingdom.

Steven

 

 

Posted in Archaeology, History, Israel | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment