Yesterday, JB and I took the boys to Tradewinds Park.
While the mobile home park that I lived in for most of my childhood is now gone, and the canal that bordered a two lane road is now a six lane road, and the farmland that was once as far away as a glance out my bedroom window is a shopping center, and there is a new high school in land that was once a forest, somehow, Tradewinds Park has survived the onslaught of development that has plagued most of the community I used to call home.
Nostalgia.
While the mobile home park that I lived in for most of my childhood is now gone, and the canal that bordered a two lane road is now a six lane road, and the farmland that was once as far away as a glance out my bedroom window is a shopping center, and there is a new high school in land that was once a forest, somehow, Tradewinds Park has survived the onslaught of development that has plagued most of the community I used to call home.
Nostalgia.
But Tradewinds is.
I saw the spot that we had a birthday party for my good friend Tony when we were teenagers. I looked through the window of the old museum my brother and I would wander through upon each visit. As if we were going to see something new this time. A windmill that I was photographed at with my gosh-awful brown sandals. Keith and I used to ride our bikes to this park on many a Saturday and climb the huge Spanish Moss that stood in the center of the Park. The tree is gone now but the petting zoo is still there. The pony ride ring that we went around at one of my early birthday parties looks different now, but it still offers rides to a whole new group of children. Our boys chased peacocks. Generations older than my brother and I collected feathers from years ago, but still the beautiful blue they always were.
I found a plaque in the center of the Park. It opened in 1977. The year I was born. A sprawling 627-acres located on both sides of Sample Road -- a gift amongst the hustle and bustle of the life that surrounds it. It was a horse-breeding and boarding business from 1944-1975 owned by the McLean family. Their original farmhouse is that museum my brother and I would frequent on hot Florida days.
In conversation with a horse trainer who let us pet some ponies, I learned that the park is currently in a "stay of execution." They were almost privatized last year and they have bought some time, but not much. With all the trouble in the economy, Tradewinds is in grave danger of being lost amidst the budget cuts of Broward County.
If you live in or around Tradewinds or have in the past, please take the time to visit their website a by clicking here. Tell the powers that be how you feel. Share how important this oasis in the midst of a bustling county is to you and your family.
Or even, like me, how important it was in your past.
1 comment:
Ah... Tradewinds Park! Me and Joe used to go there, too, even well into our twenties, and walk the nature trails and talk. Such a great park! I hope they find a way to hold on to it!!
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