Comments on: betty virgina
 

The pedestrian bridge is the only thing that I seem to recognize. Anyone know if that same bridge is still there now? Many generations of kids have crossed that bridge!

Hey that was when that was a safe part of town :eek: I too remember the pedestrian bridge and the funky bathrooms and outside water fountains. The big hill to the south of that bridge was a cool place when we were kids.

The bridge is still there. Does anybody remember the rocket ship that you played in?

I recall the rocket ship, the turtle, and monkey bars, the elephant slide, the swings, the horses. I bet those horse swings would be worth a pretty penny nowadays as antiques. We used pick our favorite color. Mine was blue.

I remember those old horse swings. My favorite color was the blue one too.
I recall if you got to swinging too high there was a pole in the back that would crack you upside the back of your head....ouch!:hurt:

Do they still have the speedo swing set :laugh: oh yes and the boxing ring out back ? :eek: And just who was Betty Virgina anyway ?

Viriginia and Betty were the daughters of A.C. Steere and Elias Goldstein, respectively, the people that donated the land for the park. Of course they donated it when they were developing South Highlands, so it was more of an investment. Steere lived across the street from it in that big house Andy Querbes lives in now.

The rocket ship was awesome, especially about 2PM when the slide would be approximately 7,000 degrees F.

I think my favorite was the round platform that spun round and round. Three for four kids would grab on to the bars and run and push as fast as we could and see how fast we could get it to spin, then jump on! We would then try to stand in the middle but if you get off center, the centrifugal force would throw us off. Some kids would just sit on the bars and hang on. I have no idea what this ride was called, but I do remember a few boys who broke their leg or arm on it. I think eventually they got rid of that type of thing at parks.

yeah I remember that. In fact I think there were two sets of horses. One was a suspended swing type, and others were supported from the bottom, more like a rocking horse. But the swing horses and rocking horses were both very colorful and I'm sure they are a collectible today. I think they were cast out of iron.

I think that bridge is still there and I see a baseball diamond or two that stay busy when I drive by. It is a landmark and I find the post on the name of the park to be very interesting.

The baseball fields are TERRIBLE because that portion of the park is now also used for flood control.

This thread got me browsing all the old photos and I noticed this building that I drive by all the time: (1700 Centenary)

http://www.shreveport.com/forums/pho...1f30400b8e.jpg

The caption in the photo gallery reads "Almost completely obscured by trees, vines and weeds. The front door is all that is distinguishable now. It was for sale for $350,000 before the bottom dropped out of our economy. I guess it never sold."

In case you are wondering what it looks like today:

http://www.shreveport.com/forums/pho...b41286b6c4.jpg

Don't know why I looked at this since I missed it in June but it brought back memories. The rocket ship was awesome, when I was young it was a big deal to go to the very top, which at the time was at least 300 ft. high. There was this weird merry go round we called the "beehive" that was dome shaped and you could fit into little slots the size of you and not see anyone else on it. I've never seen another one. The best thing were the swings over by the big bluff, it seemed lik you could swing 50 ft high. It's just not the same now that everyone is litigeous, parks aren't like they used to be.

I think that the current small children of Shreveport are suffering a serious misjustice by NOT having the rocket ship. Also, have you passed this park on a Sunday? Hint: It gets taken over.:eek:

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Remember the "rolling" tube thing? This had to be 60s or early 70s....This was pre-rocket. It was a tube, open at both ends lying horizontally on rollers on the ground. You could walk/run inside and get it rolling (in place) really fast (think hamster wheel). You could get several people in at once.

It was the most popular thing there and a crowd was always around it. The "big kids" pretty much had a monopoly on it most of the time.

After the number of injuries and broken limbs increased someone decided it wasn’t such a good idea and had it removed. But you could see the foundation there for years after.

Our scout hut was there in the park and it was also open till noon on Saturdays and was a great place to get dropped off to work, hang out, play football (now banned in scouting), etc. Saw a hippie wedding early one misty Saturday morning. Once we saw some folks walking around and “hiding” things. Naturally we looked after they left the park and the things they were hiding were KEEL key fobs. We tuned in a radio & heard the promo: you could show them down at the station and get a LP album. I got about 5 fobs; they didn’t seem too pleased that I had so many (could have grabbed more fobs but didn’t). Some of the LPs were pretty decent (and significant: Blues Magoos, The Fool) but none were mainstream AM bands at least by KEELs limited playlist.


The rocket ship was awesome, especially about 2PM when the slide would be approximately 7,000 degrees F.
LOL

1700 Centenary
 

Update on 1700 Centenary, I drove past today and had my camera in the car. Somebody cleaned it up and is leasing space in it:

http://www.shreveport.com/forums/vie...76&k2=1&gid2=0

The hand-made sign says "Divine Power Ministries."

Well, I'll be dog. Getting on time to pay property taxes. Somebody's done made a big donation to a non-profit. Bless they hearts.