I love to eat...but never my own words. One of my very first blog posts was about the Laguna de San Gabriel Playground, where I mourned the loss of cool parks and lamented the fact that interesting playgrounds were few and far between. Evidently, my laziness in searching out perfect parks does not necessarily equate to their nonexistence. Thankfully, weird, wonderful, and wacky tacky parks abound - at least in Southern California. Sometimes one must simply do a little bit of homework in order to find them.
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| Moon Unit Mary |
In our recent post "How'd You Like to Spend New Year's on the Moon?", we visited a hometown landmark, Moon Park. When I was online looking up a street address for the park, I found that there was another park with a lunar layout in nearby Anaheim, CA. Just a hop, skip, and a jump from Disney's Tomorrowland is Brookhurst Community Park - Destination Moon!
"Destination Moon" - Dinah Washington
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| Ever apropos, Mary carried her moon and star carpet bag. |
I hate to say it, but I think Brookhurst Community Park puts old Moon Park to shame. BCP is a sprawling landscape of stalagmites, bridges, arches, and giant craters. It is definitely more of a playground than a park and invites visitors to crawl over, under, and around the man-made moonscape. Here are a bunch of photos of us doing just that.
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| The moon bridge that traverses the length of the park, bisecting it into play/picnic area and sports complex. |
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| Trust me, this is what everyone is wearing on the moon this season... |
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| I know because I was the only one there. |
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| Paging 21st Century Ed Woods - aren't you ready to buy a camera and start filming your low-budget, sci-fi movie here? I've already roughed out the first draft for "Mr. Tiny Meets the Moon Men" |
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| Lest we forget that it is a playground, Mr. Tiny attacks the equipment. |
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| Mary tries to astral project herself out of space prison. |
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| Maybe I am over thinking this, but how cool would it be to have a fashion show a la "How to Marry a Millionaire" where the models came down the ramp through the lunar arch and then perched themselves on the stalagmites? |
I wish I could tell you more about the design and history of BCP, but the Anaheim Parks Dept. just won't give. According to my brother, this area used to be called the "sadlands" and was heavily populated by skaters. Maybe the Anaheim Historical Society can help me out with this one as there is little information that I was able to learn beyond finding out that the park was built in 1973. It is not often, however, that we go to a playground for a history lesson. We go to a playground to PLAY!
Brookhurst Community Park
2271 W. Crescent Ave.
Anaheim, CA
Cheers!
Mr. Tiny
How cool is that! Love it! It does look like a 1970s park!
ReplyDeleteTRIXIE!!!!! I haven't seen hide nor hair of you around the old blogs lately. Thanks for stopping by. I hope all is well on the Central Coast! Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteHappy new year to you!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid, I went to Brookhurst JHS which backs up to the park and lived in the apts across the street from the park... it was called moonscape park. Thanks for the great pictures!
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure! I'm sure you have some pretty great memories of your trips to the moon!
DeleteI went to Mel Gauer Elementary and Brookhurst Jr. High around the time that the park was built. The park is in between both schools. Great place to grow up and great park to play in. Sadly, the gangs have taken over that area. A 9 year old little girl was shot and killed in the apartments across the street the street; poor baby caught up in gang crossfire.
ReplyDeleteThat is tragic. How awful that such a neat park (a place children and families should feel safe) would be stuck in the middle of something so. It seems like Anaheim is coming back into its own again; hopefully, things will turn around for the park.
DeleteI was born in Anaheim and lived a block away from the park on Gilbert Street. One of our normal Saturday activities was to walk to the park and ride around on our tricycles (and then bicycles as I got a bit older). Of course, that was during the 1970's when things were a lot safer (and better IMHO). I had many a good memory in the park. It definitely was a unique park. If any of you have any questions about the park, I might can answer them. Just reply to my post if you do.
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