Today, I took a ride to where I grew up as a kid. It was sunny and 60.

Where I grew up, there is a big park in the northwest area of the town.

Wiley Park has a lot of green space and has changed quite a bit since I was younger.

Gone is the concrete wading pool, where the mothers were the lifeguards. The pool was only three feet deep, but when you are five years old, it seems much deeper than that. And it was free.

Gone are the wooden teeter-totters, swings with wooden seats that hung from big chains, the steel jungle gym and the tall slides. I spent many hours in those swings with my “sweetheart” at the time.

Gone is the skating rink that went up every winter for many years. At one time, ice skating was so popular, there were two rinks side by side. Adults were usually on one and little kids were on the other one.

We would also build igloos and snow forts and had massive snow ball fights in that park.

Gone is the small baseball diamond and backstop. Many pick up games of baseball, softball and wiffle ball were played there.

There is still a basketball court there that is used occasionally. Not like when I was growing up when there would be play on both courts and people waiting to get on.

A lot of touch football was played in that park. In fact, we used that park for “informal” football practices before football practice was started. We did calisthenics, ran plays and ran wind sprints.

Every New Years’ Day during my late teens and early 20s, a group of us got together for the annual Snow Bowl where we played tackle football. It was brutal when there was frozen ground and very little snow, but we weren’t going to complain; at least, not out loud.

As a young adult, I had a big red Irish Setter named Kojak. During the day, Kojak was on a chain in the back yard, but at night, I would walk him on a leash to Wiley Park and then let him off of his leash so that he could run and romp. He had the time of his life and I got a lot of enjoyment watching him enjoy himself. He was a magnificent specimen.

It was a park where I would go to meet a girl whose parents had forbade us to see each other. There was a tree that had our initials inside a heart carved into it. The tree is gone, replaced with smaller ones.

Yeah; it all came back as I sat there with my bike on its kickstand; my right foot resting on the footboard and my left leg resting on my saddle bag while I smoked a great cigar and sipped on a bottle of Dark Mocha Starbucks Frappicino (it’s tough to carry coffee unless it’s in a thermos).

Squirrels-both red ones and black ones-were scurrying about, burying food that would feed them during the winter.

The colors of the leaves were very vivid and so were my memories of my time spent in that park.

Share your memories.

Have a safe ride.