Heritage Park: A Revolutionary Playground

I must often remind to myself that wacky tacky is not some abstract concept, some mysterious, intangible quality floating in the ether, only to be applied arbitrarily by a capricious overlord.  Often times wacky tacky is determined by the irrefutable proof of simple arithmetic.  Get out your number-two pencils.  What do you get when you take a Southern California city of early-Mexican lineage and a Spanish name, add a community whose population is 62-percent Asian, plus the tax-payer funding to build a thematic playground?  The answer is obviously, Colonial Boston.  Duh.

              

Now I am no historian, but I can say with some degree of certainty that the bulk of the action during the American Revolution did not take place in - or even around - Cerritos, CA.  Why then would the city fathers hearken back as far as our nation's forefathers for inspiration in constructing the city's flagship playground?  Clearly imbued with the "Spirit of '76," that for all practical purposes had the entire nation possessed during the bicentennial celebrations, Heritage Park was born.

Heritage Park - Cerritos, CA

Floating on its own little man-made island (just like Boston), Heritage Park is wonderland of trails, tunnels, waterfalls, and sunbathing turtles.  With my nephew in tow, I navigated the wacky tacky time machine to the American Revolution!!!

He's still embarrassed that he left his tricorn hat in the future...

At Heritage Park, the playground equipment is cleverly integrated into the colonial village scene, where each building (saddlery/tannery/blacksmith shop) houses slides, jungle gyms, and ropes courses.  I'm not so sure that this translates to a highly effective lesson in American history, but it pays to start early, right?

Can you see the slide coming out of the second story of that building (top left)?
I mean, who doesn't want to slide his way out of the Old North Church?!!

Okay, so maybe the American Revolution is a tad advanced for a four-year-old.  Maybe I had to tell him we were going to a "pirate ship park" to elicit any kind of enthusiasm.  wacky tacky wisdom dictates that we teach history in baby steps.

"The Boston Tea Party is that-a-way, boys!"...is what I would have liked him to say.

"Avast, me hearties," instead was his cry.

The thing I really love about Heritage Park is that it is so atmospheric.  It might not recreate an accurate picture of 18th-Century Boston, but the meandering trails, the countless bridges, and the water features turn taking the kids to the park from a chore to a midday "vacay."

And that blue, blue water is spec-tacky-ular!!!
There is something about water that is dyed blue (an algaecide) that
makes it all the more magical as it trips and falls over stones on its way. 

Be ye history buff, pirate enthusiast, or lover of man-made nature, Heritage Park offers something for everyone!  In a time when when "you get what you pay for" rings more and more true, I am so glad that some intelligent city planners and parks departments are putting our money to work in ways wacky tacky!  Forty years old or two-hundred-forty years old, we love a playground that excites our imaginations...while doing some of the work for us!

Blast you, you dirty red coats pirates!!!

Paul Revere says, "Be 'Just Like Me;' one, if by land, and two, if by sea."

"Just Like Me" - Paul Revere & The Raiders

Heritage Park

18600 Bloomfield Ave

Cerritos, CA

cerritos.us

Cheers!

Mr. Tiny

Destination Moon!

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.

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

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.

The moon bridge that traverses the length of the park,
bisecting it into play/picnic area and sports complex.

Trust me, this is what everyone is
wearing on the moon this season...

I know because I was the only one there.

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"

Lest we forget that it is a playground, Mr. Tiny attacks the equipment.

Mary tries to astral project herself out of space prison.

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

MONSTER PARK: The Laguna de San Gabriel Playground

On the advice of our friend Janet Klein, who just happens to be one of the best performers on the Southern California music scene (maybe in the whole world!), we motored north to San Gabriel to find the “Monster Park.”  The Laguna de San Gabriel Playground, a small part of the larger Vincent Lugo Park, is the brainchild of Benjamin Dominguez who completed construction of the park in 1965.  This kind of wacky tacky is becoming harder and harder to find as parks are being retrofitted with “safe,” modern, plastic playground equipment.  In fact, this playground was set for demolition when local activists banded together to save it from the wrecking ball.  Constructed mostly of cement, sea creatures of all kinds – whales, dolphins, snails, sea serpents – create a crazy, and yes, somewhat dangerous place to knock out your front teeth.  But what is the fun of being a kid if you can’t climb up a snail’s butt and slide out his mouth? 

What can I say?

 Inside the jaws of a killer.

You may insert your beached whale joke here. 

She only had to push seven kids out of the way to get her turn 

 Sadly, the little red dolphin died later that day from acute spinal trauma and two collapsed lungs.

 We also found Fosselman’s Ice Cream, est. 1919.

This would have been really exciting if some of us weren’t lactose intolerant.

Cheers!

Mr. Tiny