Kids on the playground, or exhausted from the playground:
Vendors doing a brisk business selling coconut ice, sliced cucumbers, or chicharrones:
And a girls' soccer match that reminded me of my days as the star fullback of our 4th-grade team (Saul's Saints; we had one win that year). These girls would have made quick work of me blindfolded:
Koz is an underfunded park that, until recently, had no nets on the basketball hoops and sagging ones on the tennis courts. Thanks to the people who live in these pictures, the City is reinvesting resources and making Koz a nerve center again: the kind of place you want to go to play on the swings, grab an elote, or watch a soccer game that makes you glad you're not a fullback anymore.
4 comments:
I believe it was the Koz that finally delivered the full city experience for my kids a couple of summers ago: Twenty kids playing with toy guns and yelling in various languages, trying to get Atticus to shoot back at them. (This is something A has dreamed about his whole life--being able to play with toy guns like that--but the culture shock was evident on his face).
Then as we were leaving, three cops cars came screeching up (one on the curb), which incited a walking fellow to break out into a dead heat with cops following on foot. His girlfriend was thrown to the ground and cuffed. It was then that I knew our hippie pesticide-free parks would forever pale in comparison.
Ha! (I shouldn't laugh; we've had continued crime in the area this summer, though it's seemed a little quieter near me, and especially over at Koz).
Believe it or not, that was a *different* neighborhood park, one paradoxically called 'Unity.' It's actually had a nice facelift this summer as well, and I just heard they'll be showing the movie Hairspray (the remake, alas) there in August. That'll scare those thugs away. Maybe the whole Von Holten clan should plan a trip for the movie!! (actually, any old excuse will do; we miss you).
I will attest to the wonderfulness of Koz Park. although, not surprisingly, I prefer it during the week when it's nice & quiet.
regardless, it's an oasis in the hood.
Christy, if you were the kind of child soccer player I was, the game was really all about the oranges at half time and the grape shasta as a reward for getting through the whole thing. What's with the serious athlete kids these days??
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