Can we go to Castle Park, Daddy?

Castle Park is the park Calvin and I go to every chance we get.

Now its fair to say that my neighborhood is filled with beautiful parks.
Most have freshly mowed lawns, jungle gyms, either brand new or in good repair.
They have baseball fields with chalked lines
Big expanses of level grass for soccer tournaments
Basketball courts with nylon nets

But not Castle Park

Castle Park is decades old.
the paint is chipping, the parking lot is cracked
the homeless gather with their bikes in the gazebo.
It is a schmorgasbord of second hand strollers

I love that it's dank and surounded by giant broken trees
I love that there's sand and mud everywhere.
I love that nobody is texting.

But the thing I love most about Castle Park,

is other Dads.

All those prestine parks, with their green grass and ample shade, attract nothing but moms and nannies. And I stand their in those parks praying my son won't hit anyone or be seduced by the coolest new toys. I try to make a eye contact, so that I can smile shyly, and try not to give off a creepy man vibe. I feel like the lone college freshman in a female studies class, who everyone just assumes is a pervert. or stupid. or both. either way, unwelcome.

No, Castle Park is filled with dads. We don't have to say much. A simple shrug will do. We don't bark out instructions in shrill voices from across the sand box. We don't even get involved until someone gets hurt. Even then we wait to see if the broken kid will shrug it off. We don't brag, we don't condescend. We just let the monkeys play.

That is, until the playing starts to look like too much fun, and then we become little monkeys ourselves, showing off for the wives, doing a few pull ups to prove we still can.

When we go to Castle Park, I bring a soccer ball, a bicycle, a plastic truck, a yellow pad and a leaky ball point pen.

No adventurer is more prepared.

Castle Park has become my walden
It is the stage for my muse
It is the setting for action and mischief
It has the perfect serenity for contemplative observation

Sure Calvin likes other parks too. There's Blue Park, and Big Park, and Nonnie's Park.

But on late monday mornings, after the house is picked up and the crazies have left the building, when I say "Which park should we go to?" Calvin smiles.

and in his best doe-eyed puppy dog voice he says "Can we go to Castle Park, Daddy?"