There were a couple of days last week in the midst of all the heat and humidity that I skipped hitting the fitness center in early morning hours and headed instead for Mohegan Park to get some laps in around Spaulding Pond while the cloud cover kept the sun from superheating the moisture in the air preventing us from parboiling before nine AM (which, come think of it sounds like a great name for a band).
I wasn't alone and I found myself keeping track of the number of people I passed as I made my rounds not that I have any way of knowing where they were all from or why they were in the park (and quite frankly neither of those is any of my business).
It was still early, so the beach wasn't open yet but I've been up there when it is and I'm always impressed with how the lifeguards manage what resembles at times a cat rodeo in bathing suits but I think my larger point is how important a resource like Spaulding Pond within a treasure like Mohegan is not just for those of us who live in Norwich but for those from around the area.
When I was plodding along last Thursday, there were crews from the Department of Public Works already hard at work when I arrived. Some were mowing and others were patching the asphalt near the storm drains over on Wilderness Road while others were trimming the Arbor Walk. I love wandering under those trellises and until Thursday morning I had spent zero seconds ever wondering how they were always so well-kept.
That's the kind of small thing I'm talking about. There were three men, one of them in a payloader while the other two hacked at overgrown whatever that stuff is and we all walked right through them as if this was the most normal and natural thing in the world.
Maybe thirty feet away from them, beyond the fountain (and doncha love that fountain?) is a seven foot or so high stone thanking the donors of the original park from its earliest days of 1907 through1938. Remember the Great Depression started in 1929 so the generosity extended is all the more amazing. A donation and then an improvement one at a time and here we are in the summer enjoying the shade and the walking trails.
On the way home I stopped at Norwichtown Commons to grab a salad in the supermarket and grumbled a little because I had to park over by the yogurt place, forgetting that it wasn't that many years ago that the Norwichtown Mall had plenty of spaces because it was basically a ghost town and why am I complaining about walking an extra thirty steps?
I'm not sure what the critical mass for success in Norwich looks like but I'll bet it's something that starts small and just keeps growing and going on. And maybe, just maybe, some rain helps that process along.
-bill kenny
No comments:
Post a Comment