Nappanee Advance-News, Volume 121, Number 43, Nappanee, Elkhart County, 28 October 1998 — Page 9

Local resident shares memories of West Park

by Roy G. Slagle, Jr. I lived just one block south of west side park, on Centennial Street. Our place was kind of a meeting place, where everybody met when we all went to the park. We always went down the alley next to our house, along a wellworn path, across Van Buren Street, which was then a cinder street, from Nappanee Street, west, or Nappanee Street north from Van Buren. past the park. Nappanee had its own utility company then, which produced a lot of cinders, and these were used on the streets that were not paved. In the park to the southeast corner was a World War I cannon, given to the park by the American Legion about 1935. I don't think there was a kid in Nappanee who hadn't crawled out on the barrel and placed fireworks into the barrel on the Fourth of July. The cannon was donated for scrap iron during WWII. Also in this corner of the park was the ball diamond, and many games were played there. To the west of the diamond were the tennis courts, and everybody had some kind of tennis racket, even though a lot of the strings were missing—of course, we were all pros! On the west edge of the tennis courts were the shutfleboard courts. There were six courts with a scoreboard on both ends, made by the Vitreous Company of Nappanee. now VITCO, Inc. The cues and disks were stored in the four long, narrow boxes mounted on a rack along the west side. We took out the cues and disks we needed to play with, and all were put away when we were finished. Next to the shuffleboard courts, Pete Rood had a eoncession stand,

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REMEMBERS PARK FUN-Roy Slagle, Jr. is shown checking stock at Ace Hardware, his place of employment. In this week's issue, Roy shares his memories of West Park with good recollection of all the park has offered through the years. (AN photo by Merrie Chapman)

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open on weekends. You could buy candy bars, a can of pop, or popsickle for three or five cents. Just north of the shuffleboards were two horseshoe courts, which were kept in good condition at all times. TTiere were contests all day long, when the Fourth was at the park —more on this later. Just east of the horseshoe courts was a Japanese rock garden. It was in a figure eight, with an arched bridge over the center of the pool. It had a cascading waterfall, with many rock garden plants all around the pool. A tragic drowning in the early 50s closed the pool. North of the pool there were swings and a Maypole. On the Maypole were six pole hangers, and everybody would hang on one—but one would wind around all the others on the outside, then we would go as fast as we could, as he would unwind, he would fly almost straight out. To the east of these was a square pond, about 15 feet by 30 feet, stocked with goldfish and water lily pads. It also had a wire fence around it, with a walk around the pool inside, and a lot of flowering shrubs around the outside. There were about four or five brick fireplaces in the park, where you could cook or roast wieners, etc. These were made by the W.P.A. of that time. Just northwest of the pavilion, there were more swings and a merry-go-round, as well as a large slide with humps in it. Everybody would bring from home a bunch of bread wrappers, made of waxed paper. This would soon speed up the slide down. The merry-go-round was next to the slides, and was supported by rods from above —about eight of them. We would get it going

around, and then get it swinging back and forth until it would life up about three feet—and the squeek it made —I’m sure you could hear it all over the neighborhood. To the east of these, next to the street, was the croquet court. It was about 10 inches into the ground, with a wooden border all around it. All the hoops were heavy steel rods, cemented into the court. It was kept in very good condition. Most of our parents had a cherry tree at home, in which we would cut a limb about three inches thick and about 12 inches long. We would then get an old shoe and take the heel off and nail it to the mallet, with a 12-14-inch handle. We would spend most of our time on the croquet court. On the north east side of the park there was a cement block building, and in it were the well and pump, and two restrooms. There was one drinking fountain at the building, and one on the north east comer of the pavilion. In the early 30s, the 4-H livestock shows were all held on the north side of the park. This was the Elkhart County 4-H before they moved to the fairgrounds in Goshen. Also, the Church of the Brethren held their district conference meetings here for many years. I remember one time, about 1935 or 1936, we had a hard snow blizzard, and it drifted up to the overhang of the roof on the northwest comer of the pavilion. We

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could walk up and slide down on our sleds —I don’t think I weighed as much as I do now! As I First remember the pavilion, in the late 20s, it had a cinder walk around and leading to it from the street. Later, the walk around it and from the street, and along Nappanee Street, were paved with cement sidewalks, and this made some of the best roller skating around. All the windows were wood panels, lowered and raised with rope and pully. There were no glass windows in the building then. The inside was one large room, with no partitions. Later glass windows were installed, and a kitchen was put in the north side of the pavilion. All of the above things mentioned are all gone now, except the pavilion, which has gone through

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many renovations in the past. Some of the custodians were Lee Om. Bill Miller and Guy Phend. (Note —Roy Slagle, Jr., is a life-

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Nappanee Advance News Wednesday. October 28,1998

time Nappanee-area resident, and was glad to share some memories of one of Nappanee’s oldest parks.)

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