Well, it's been a week post rapture and we're all still here for another 5 months at least, so I guess it's time for some new blogs.
If I go to Crossfit on Saturday mornings, I like to take Otto on a 'adventure' walk afterwards. An adventure walk is really nothing more than a walk that is different than the walks we take every day, twice a day, ad nausea. Today I decided to take him for a walk around the civil war cemetery on Capitol Hill. Yes, there is one. It's officially called the Grand Army of the Republic Park and full of civil war veteran graves! (Howe and 12th Ave E). As I drove up, there seemed to be a 'happening'. Oh, Memorial Day. Hmmm, some people actually find more ways to celebrate memorial day than just getting excited about a day off work. There were lots of people milling and planting flags.
Adventure walks aren't much fun with lots of people around so, Otto and I went for plan B. Just down the street is Louisa Boren Lookout, which has a pretty view, a cool (though muddy) trail, AND happens to be on the street where I grew up. I can't remember what was originally on the Louisa Boren Lookout site. A few Facebook friends seem to be remembering some type of old house. But, at some point in the mid 70s someone decided it needed to be a park. It's a cool little park with an amazing view of Lake Washington, the 520 bridge and the east side. In a cooler fun fact, my mom was on the committee that named the park AND actually came up with the name. The park is on top of a ravine and it seems (even though I am guessing no one in this city knows this but me) the ravine is called Louisa Boren Park (Louisa Boren being a Seattle early/founding resident). Anyhow, my mom thought it would be snazzy to call the park on top of the ravine Louisa Boren Lookout and others agreed. Of course, when I was growing up, no one actually knew it was called Louisa Boren Lookout. Everyone I knew called it either Hi Park or High Park. Actually, I thought everyone called it High Park (because teenagers, well, you know), but it seems people my mom's generation called it Hi Park because it contains a statue that looks like a 'Hi' when viewed from the right angle.
Hi Statue
So Otto and I hiked down the trail, heady from memories of childhood (well, one of us was heady, one of us was more muddy). And at some point I decided to 'check in' on Facebook. I mostly wanted to see if Louisa Boren Lookout was thing on Facebook. And guess what, it is. It was the first place my phone found as a check in location! So Otto and I checked in at Louisa Boren Lookout. So Facebook can locate a tiny little park named by my mom in the 1970s with a name that no one uses. I just find that amazing. Back when that park was named, no one would have even fathomed such a thing!
Some photos.....
Maybe it still is High Park.
Happy Memorial Day. Flag man looking at the view from Louisa Boren/Hi/High park!
And finally, just for fun, this is my house.
Well, of course not my house, but the house my parents purchased in honor of my impending birth for $22,500.
So, it will always be my house.
3 comments:
I got to name this park because I had been appointed to the city's Park Naming Committee by our friend and then City Council member, Bruce Chapman. My mother-in-law, Helen "Feathers" Carlson, called my being named to the Park Naming Committee a "toe cover." That has always been one of my favorite expressions. As you can probably deduce, a "toe cover" is a totally unnecessary gift. Anne/Mom
Great story…thank you for sharing the history of this park! I’ve always had fond memories of this park and it’s cool to hear some of the history of the naming of it. I still remember watching a fireworks show from there (must’ve been the mid-80’s?), it really is a magical setting. I even remember getting high/drunk there a few times as well. Once again, you’ve made me laugh/smile and think with one of your blog postings! Thank you…
I remember the field that was there before the park. It had a hedge around it and big laurel bush on the Olin Place end that was great to play in. I used to walk through it all the time. The powers that be thought that kids like me might get abducted from such a setting, so eliminated all those "sight barriers" and cleaned it up. I remember the park being built -- big mounds of dirt. We played nerf football there, including in the muddy days before the grass came in (one hill is good for running, the smaller hill of course is for touchdowns). I used to meet our dad at the bus stop, too, now that was olden days. Ah, so many memories of Hi Park. I was at least teens, maybe 20s, before I knew that statue said hi.
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