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By: Jim Fitzpatrick |
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Email: jim@nunica.com |
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Local Farmer in Polkton Township writes for the Coopersville Observer. |
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Along Brandy Creek By Jim Fitzpatrick
The Coopersville Observer June 30, 2014 - - No. 132 |
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Down in a small isolated hollow along Blackmer Road, up in Muskegon County, can be found one of those unique out of the way small county parks from yesterday. Mom and Dad and Aunt Wilma and Uncle Ted use to take us three brothers and the girl cousin there when we were kids. Aside from the hamburgers, marshmallows, and chocolate candy bars; the most fun came from the fireflies we chased and captured, stuffed them in a mason jar, put the lid on. The more you could catch, the brighter the glowing glass jar became. It was like magic; in fact, to the four of us it was a magical time in our life anyway.
A visit to Patterson Park can take you back in time. Few changes have occurred there along Little Rio Grande Creek in the passing years. Huge oaks and sycamores shadow the westward flowing waters and the limited pick-nicking area paralleling the banks of the stream. A pick-nick table or two with charcoal grill each in the open areas; you can hang out in the small built-from-local-forest-materials pavilion nestled under the boughs of a lofty hemlock, a pleasing hangout if the weather turns foul. Two small unique concrete bridges cross the stream, one as you enter the park, another as you leave. An unusual damn-like water control structure, constructed of field stone and concrete, crosses midway in the stream between the two bridges. During low water take your sandals off, walk across its top to the other side; get your feet wet like maybe you did there when you were a kid.
Those magical fireflies that filled the air at dusk in Patterson Park still linger brightly in memory after all the passing years. And - Aunt Wilma always made us unscrew the lid of the Mason jar before we returned home; her stern words were, "would you like being cooped up in a glass cage with no air to breath?" |
