Monday, October 25, 2010
Phillips West Park: A Review
Posted by Betsy Phillips on Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 8:12 AM
Location: On Morrow Road
Size of Park: Medium Large
Crowds: Small
Approximate Age of Patrons: All ages
Topics of Conversation: Baseball smacktalk
Stray Dogs Seen: None
Types of Vehicles in Parking Lots: Family cars
Perceived Safety: High
Number of Gunshots Heard: None
Dog Friendliness: Medium
Number of pitbulls sighted: Just Mine
Accessibility: Medium
Incorporation of Local History: One historical marker
Recommended Patrons: Ball players of all sorts, lump enthusiasts, people who appreciate a good park bench
West Park has a community center, a substantial (if slightly faded) piece of playground equipment, swings, tons of picnic tables, great trees, and plenty of places for organized sports. The only things that seemed a little lacking were garbage cans. There'd obviously been a birthday party this weekend by the playground — and what a great idea! I want to have a birthday party at the park! — and they had the one garbage can available packed so tight I wondered how the bag would come out intact.
It was very breezy while we were there, so the baseball fields were rising up off the ground in huge brown clouds and half-suffocating us. The ball players seemed unfazed, though.
The park is a lovely size. Large enough that there's plenty to do in it, but not so large that you can't get around the whole thing in 20 minutes or so.
The sports equipment seemed to be in good shape. Not only do the dugouts have nice seating, there are a couple of nice sets of bleachers for onlookers.
But the coolest thing was that the park had a decorated lump and the lump has a really cool bench near it, so you can sit on the bench and contemplate the lump. I have seen lumps at other parks, Cleveland Park, for instance has a couple of weird lumps. This lump is smaller than those, like maybe about the size of a cow on its side.
The lump has been landscaped — there's a big bush along with some smaller bushes and decorative grasses. And it has been more unconventionally decorated. One of the bushes had some Mardi Gras beads with a tiny shoe. There were tiny tombstones and other Halloween items. But there were also fake flowers so faded it was clear they'd been there a while and some decorations that seemed to hearken to July 4.
There's no explanation for the lump. But if you go to the park to see it, you should also bring something festive to leave.
This is a lovely park and well worth searching out.
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