Dalton Park, Not Just a Place to Play
...n a rectangular plot of land, at the northwest corner of the intersection of Armstead Street and Gladstone Avenue. Our house was on Armstead, adjacent to the park, at its southwest corner, and our backyard shared a boundary fence with the park. The park construction took several months, but when it was complete there was a large parking lot bordering the entire south side of the property, and two basketball courts running end to end located on the east side of the property. Immediately north of the basketball courts was an open area, and just north of that was the combination football field and baseball diamond. The football field formed the outfield of the baseball diamond, which completed the park at its north end. Along the west side of the park, just south of the baseball diamond was a picnic area, with three open gazebos, including picnic tables and barbeques. South of the picnic area, extending east and west, from the basketball court to the property line on the west side of the park, were two separate sand playgrounds. One of the playgrounds had a giant swing set, with seven swings suspended from a thirty foot arch, at the time the biggest I had ever seen. The other playground had a castle, a jungle gym, a couple of slides, and a structure that looked like an upside down bowl, created from metal pipes in the form of interconnected triangles. Located between the south side of playgrounds, and the parking lot, was the park office/auditorium. This is where the “Park Director” ran the park. Our first Park Director was Lois Brickman, a forty-something motherly type, who took all us Caldwell kids under her wing at one time or another. Lois would arrive every morning at 7:00 a.m. sharp, which was the exact same time I walked to school. My school was directly across the street from the park, and she would never miss saying hi as I past her on the way. Lois was a good friend of our family, and when she moved away it was my mother who replaced her. My mom figured, her kids were always at the park, she might as well join us. The Park Director had a staff of between three and four assistants, who were usually high school seniors or college students. The staff doubled as football, basketball, and baseball coaches. Teams were divided into age groups, from pee-wee league, six to ten years old, all the way up to high school age. With seven brothers and three sisters, each age group usually had at least one of my family members playing in every sport. Our competition was from the other parks in the area; Valley Dale, Charter Oak, Gladstone to name a few. O...