As we enter the heart of summer in State College, I am once again reminded of what this season has meant to me over the years. Summer days hold golden memories made better each year with the passage of time.
Growing up in College Heights allowed easy bike rides downtown, even easier trips to the Creamery and most importantly the Centre Region Parks and Rec Summer Parks Program at Sunset Park.
I’ve seen the summer Parks and Rec program from almost all angles. I participated as a child, became an employee and Park Leader in college and have been a parent with kids in the summer programs.
It all started at an early age when I walked out the door and down to Sunset Park. There, park leaders (mostly college students) would help organize games, play time, and arts and crafts. The daily routine usually included box hockey, paddleball and lots of kickball, dodge ball and softball.
State College native and former Penn State basketball coach Bruce Parkhill is among the ranks of former park leaders to have worked in Sunset Park.
At Sunset Park some of the older kids laid out a croquet golf course—18 holes of a pseudo mini-golf played using croquet mallets and balls. As one of the younger guys I walked along as a caddy and waited until older guys like Doug Garban, Donny Breon and Bruce Heilman were finished playing before we got our turn.
Once a week, the park program included an evening session—the best nights of the week. At Sunset Park it was either a huge game of capture the flag or kick the can.
Probably the things that still stand out are the special events—The Fishing Derby, the Junior Olympics and above all the Peanut Carnival.
The Peanut Carnival represented the program’s last event for the year. All summer the anticipation would build and as the week of The Peanut Carnival approached the Park Leaders and kids would plan the theme for their park’s booth.
The one that stands out the most was one we did in one of my last years as a kid in the park program. My friend Pete (I’ll omit his last name to protect the guilty) and I decided as two of the older kids that we’d pick the theme.
Many of the games at the Peanut Carnival are Peanut Pitches where you win candy by tossing peanuts into one of any number of targets. In 1980 at a particularly chilly era of The Cold War, we decided that our theme would be ‘Nuke ’em.’ We drew a map of the USSR complete with targets where there were major cities (the younger kids had a map of Cuba that was closer so they had a chance to win).
That year’s booth racked up a lot of peanuts, but also got us into a wee bit of trouble.
When I reached college I decided that I would become a park leader. In my two summers in the program I worked at Penn Hills, Woodycrest, Smithfield and my own neighborhood park, Sunset Park.
In my first year I did flirt with Peanut Carnival controversy once again. Our theme was a Wild West Saloon with peanut gambling and a keg of root beer for the patrons. There were some comments but by and large everyone appreciated that it was all in good fun.
After college I left town, moved on in my career and generally just thought back on those summer days as something that would be gone forever.
Finally five years ago I took my own children to the Peanut Carnival. My life had changed in the years that had passed, but as I took my kids to get their peanuts I saw something else that hadn’t changed. There, still running the show, was June Brown.
Mrs. Brown had taught us Arts and Crafts in the Park Program and run the Peanut Carrnival when I was a kid. She was there when I worked in college. When I began my coaching career at The University of Virginia she had written me a note wishing me luck.
She was in many ways one of the people who breathed life into the whole program. Despite the passage of so much time she was still making it special.
Nearly 40 years later the Peanut Carnival, the park program and my whole memory of summer had returned and found new meaning. In seeing a familiar face and seeing the faces of my own children as they pitched their peanuts and won their own prizes I had re-discovered a part of my summer that had always been there and still made me smile.
