I have written before of my love of public parks, but I think I will add a few memories to this story. I have always loved visiting the local parks where ever I find myself in this world. My first memories were of the parks down by the lake in northern Idaho. We used to spend time there in late afternoons while my mother played on the Sized Meats sponsored city softball team. We used to climb Tubbs Hill which bordered the ball fields. I don’t remember much of my mother’s games.

A bit to the west down by the lake is where I first remembered taking swimming lessons. The water was too cold even in the summer to really swim. I didn’t learn much about swimming there. There was a building near the beach where children could paint pottery.

I used to love to go to the small park near my Grandma Lougee’s house in Blackfoot, Idaho. It was across the street from Mr. Nixon’s grocery store. We would go down to that park to swing. We would swing so high and so long during our short stays there.

Down the street from my Grandma Mower’s and my Great Grandma Litster’s homes was the very mystifying Sugerhouse Park, Liberty Park. We didn’t spend much time alone there, but we did hold Mower family reunions there. I remember the last family reunion I attended there. It was also my cousin Patsy’s lat family reunion.

In England I have enjoyed Hyde Park, the Marble Arch, and Speakers Corner. I found the Peter Pan Memorial in Kensington Gardens. I also explored Lincoln’s Inn and the Temple public areas. In Harrogate, I really love the green area that includes Elgar’s walk. That is a beautiful park that I truly saw in my dreams long before I actually saw it in real life. I can’t explain the first time I went there and the park was already familiar to me.

I have been in most of the major parks in Beijing, China. The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, the Temple of Heaven where China was dedicated for the spreading of the Gospel in 1936 by David O. McKay. The temple of the sun and moon are interesting in their own ways. In Beijing I spent a lot of time in Bei Hai Park and the hill behind the Forbidden City. But, one of my favorite public places in Beijing is the White Dagoba on the west side of the city. It is one of the quietest places in China. It is also very close to the Lu Shun Museum. Lu Shun was the first Chinese writer I was introduced to in college.

I love New York’s Central Park and the Metropolitan Art Museum. Before I went there in real life, I had thought that that park must be very dangerous and scary, but I was very surprised to find it a lovely place where families could spend a lovely day.

In my hometown of Prineville, there a few lovely public parks. There is Pioneer Park by the courthouse which many people may feel is Prineville’s foremost park. There are benches in the park facing 3rd Street (Prineville’s Main Street) where the young kids always spent there evenings watching the cars go up and down the street. The one thing I am disappointed with this park is that the tall trees are dying out and not being replaced.

But, as I have always said, my most favorite park in the whole world is Ochoco Creek Park, pictured below. This is the first place I think of when some says the word park. I have spent much time playing in the creek floating hand-made boats or looking for crawdads. This is where I call home. This is where I feel peace. Ochoco Creek Park is Heaven on earth I’m my mind.