My Dream: A Safe Place for Children to Play in Elba

I grew up in a time when we played outdoors all day and occasionally would go to a surrounding town and see swings and a sliding board in a park area. Sometimes we would get to play on them for a short time and then would go home and make our own "park". We would have see-saws by placing a long board across a saw-horse and play for hours, or until the board would break! Our slide was usually a dirt slide down a red clay bank (for which we got into trouble). My favorite place to slide was the big sawdust pile near my dad's sawmill. We would climb the tall mountain of sawdust, get on a piece of cardboard and go flying down the tall hill. I can still smell the pine wood sawdust. Ahhh.. Swings were a big harder to make. Sometimes daddy would let us use one of his cotton ropes he used to attach to the harness of the mule when he plowed the garden. He would attach it to one of the big pecan tree limbs and we had so much fun pushing each other as high as we could, and then run underneath them.

One day a friend and I went to the woods and "sawed down" a big poplar tree to make a "flying Jennie". We had seen one at a friend's house and decided to build our own. After we got the tree to the ground, we couldn't figure out how to drag it about mile to the house so we had to leave it in the woods. So we forgot about that project.

A few years after the new Curtis school was built and I think I was in the 3rd or 4th grade, we got some playground equipment at the school. I think it included a metal slide and a few swings, and a real see-saw. We had to take turns to use the playground and my favorite thing was the sliding board. It was much nicer than sliding down dirt banks.

Over the years, we would take our children to parks and let them play on the equipment. We always had places for them to play in our yard, including tree houses. They would go outside and spent hours playing. Of course this was before we had TV or there were programs for kids to watch. 

I'm leading up to something very important to me. I have been part of a group who wanted a safe place for children to play in Elba. We raised funds in 2005-2006 to build a very nice playground at the site of the old Elba High School. It was built in one week by many volunteers.

We chose to use expensive plastic wood (made from milk cartons) and it had to be shipped from Minnesota. This increased the cost of the playground by about $50,000. But in the end it was worth it. No maintenance and no splinters as with treated wood, but it looks like wood and is beautiful.

For the past two years we have been seeking a grant to complete Tiger Town Park. Restrooms are needed, a large pavilion (for shade from the hot sun, as well as birthday parties for the little kids) and a concrete amphitheater that will seat 200 kids and will be attached the back of the old high school facade (which will be restored). The grant was approved and now the business of securing bids for a contractor has become a reality!! In the local Elba Clipper today there in the Legal section of the ads, is the advertisement for bids. I was so excited when I read that.

The winner (low bidder) will be announced at the first city council meeting in February and the contractor will have 90 days to complete the project.

So, by May 2009, Tiger Town Park should be completed. It is located downtown, near eating places, city hall, police station, library and the court house - all within walking distance. This will be something our city can be proud of for many years to come.