ah, summer

Summer break's in full swing, and these boys have been loving it. Last night we met Laura, Jimmy, Gracie, and Elly at Price's Pond, and the cousins had a great time proving they could swim all the way across (at least Liam, Max, and Jimmy), playing chicken, and doing cannonballs off the end of the pier. You may remember that Price's used to be a members-only park, but last year it was donated to the city to become part of the park department. Last year we had to buy a pass, but this year I hear there's no admission fee ... but no lifeguards either. That should make things interesting.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that our town leaders aren't used to being given big land gifts that need to be maintained, so they're trying to figure out the best way to handle things. Interesting note: I'm not sure exactly when Centennial Park, the town's main park, was established (though I'm guessing based on the name it was either 1951, 100 years after Plymouth was incorporated as a town, or 1973, 100 years after it was officially designated as a city; either way, it was before my time), but I can tell you that Magnetic Park/Bird Park has been around since the 1930s. I can also tell you that for years it had a bird sanctuary with pheasants and peacocks and even a vulture, because my grandpa used to visit it all the time when he was a kid. I just tried to look that up online to verify, but all I can find is that the park is officially called Magnetic Park because the water in the wishing well supposedly has magnetic properties because it has a high concentration of iron. Hmmm, definitely something to ask Gramps about next time I see him.

Anyway, now that you've all joined me on that completely pointless but (I'm sure) thoroughly fascinating tangent, all this is to say that summer is fun, Price's Pond is a gem, and the boys like swimming. The end.

UPDATE: Gramps reports that the water in the wishing well does indeed have a high concentration of iron, and that further, it was believed to have healthful qualities. He said his father used to tell him that the water there was the best and healthiest, and that they drank it all the time. But then he said, "We ignored the squiggly stringy bits, but those mostly stayed at the bottom anyway. But if the area flooded, which it was prone to since the river was right there, we had to give it a few days to settle down before we took a drink again." There is just way too much to unpack there, so I'm not even going to try. I will tell you, though, that my Uncle Mark also remembers both drinking from the well and the squiggly stringy bits. So there you have it. Whatever "it" is.