“You should not be waking. Eat earth! Dig deep!”

Old Man Willow is alive and well in Federal Park. He closely and carefully watches over a small Fan pocket park located between Main, Floyd, Rowland and Shields.

Surrounded by row houses, a small jungle gym sits amidst an astro turf lawn and an adjacent sitting area. It’s relatively quite. Well, except for a conversation by a group of college students in one of the adjacent buildings. How do I know they were college students? The first point is that I could hear every word of their conversation as could everyone else living in the area. Secondly, the abundant use of ‘colorful metaphors’ and the subject of their story brought back far too many clouded memories.

Fortunately, the little man is oblivious and has one focus. The staircase going up.

I’m already looking forward to going back. Ewan was quite delighted with himself. It seems fairly new and has lots of components.

However, a word of caution: This is NOT for small unsupervised children.
There is a fire pole and a small rock climbing wall which equals to: OPEN SPACE.
The landing is higher up than the one at Lombardy Park and a small child could fall.

Now, with that said, since this equipment is geared towards older kids, my 5’3″ frame easily navigated the jungle gym. I went up with him and we were able to go down the slide together. I was also able to stand outside on the ground and place him high enough up on the slide that he could enjoy coming down by himself.

Ewan and a little static electricity

Don’t let the expression fool you. He loved it. He just didn’t know what to make of the static. I think it’s a good look. What do you think?

There weren’t any other kids there on a Saturday morning. So we had the run of the place. The nice thing about this park as compared to Paradise Park, is that it doesn’t sit right on the alley. There’s a small sitting area of park benches that you walk through and on the other side is a dead end alley consisting of residential parking.

One small item I did happen to notice – leave the candy box where it is.

I’m the grumbling neighbor picking up trash along the sidewalk. I quickly snatched this up in a huff and then realized why it was there. It serves a purpose. It covers up the stub of a sign post. So it’s metal and sharp. I emailed the city but who knows how long it will take to be removed. Just be careful.

All in all, I love this little park. I can’t wait to go back. It’s one I get to climb on too, which is way cool.

Just remember if you have a small child, stay very close or climb up with them. They will have fun even with you glued to them. If you have an older child, they will love the fire pole, who doesn’t?

THE RATING

Customer Service: Not Applicable
Atmosphere: 4 Stars (You really are in the backyard. The tree, the color and clean lines of the equipment is awesome)
Cost: 4 Stars (FREE)

Total: 4 Stars
Go and enjoy!