The Big DumpTruck

I know my current obsession will wear off eventually, but right now I am spending a LOT of time looking at web sites that somehow have reference to "Whalom Park." I think this is one of the stages of mourning, isn't it? (The other stage is wondering why my site isn't anywhere near the top 5 results pages if you google for Whalom Park. I'm insulted. No, not really.)

I think he's concerned about me. He probably should be, but what can you do? I may not have mentioned that Junior and I went to the Whalom driving range to hit a bucket of balls on Columbus Day. As always, we drove by the park and I took a mental inventory of how things looked. It appeared to me that there may have been some activity, but nothing specific. Things looked as they had for most of the past year. As we rounded the corner past the roller rink, I looked up at the boarded windows, and told him (again?) that was where I learned to roller skate with my Brownie troop. I can still picture the inside as it was the last time I saw it, probably in high school.

Imagine my shock when I heard that the next day it was torn down. Not weeks later, the next day. I hope my brain had film loaded in it, because that's the last mental picture I get to take. We drove past the building again a few days later and it was 7/8 down. So much for that.

No, I haven't driven by the park since they took down the Roller Coaster. I want to, but I don't want to. You know?

Here are pictures from August 2000, our last trip to the park. Junior (blue shirt) and his cousin hit the kiddie rides. Had I only known it was the last-last trip, I would have taken MANY more pictures.