Memoirs of a Tracy Kid
Some of my readers might recall that I was planning on doing a column on the subject of ham radio for this issue.
However, because of all the recent activity associated with upgrading the Tracy Central Park, I am calling a quarterback audible and updating an open letter to the paper that I wrote four years ago regarding the beloved Central Park: I, too, have many memories of my time spent with you. I was born in the old Tracy Hospital right across the street from you.
During the first six years of my life, I lived across the street from you in a second story apartment above my grandparents’ house on the corner of Harvey and 2nd Street, just down the street from Doc Valentine’s house. Once mom trusted me enough to cross the street alone, you became my playground. During those early years, a city employee who was the part-time park attendant befriended me and tried to answer the many “why” questions I came up with as a preschooler.
He spent much of his time in a small work room adjacent to the men’s restroom under the bandstand.
He even made me a bird house that I took with me when we moved to our new house near the swimming pool on Elm Street in 1955.
During the summers, it was many hours spent on your swings, merry-go-round and teeter-totter and then shooting hoops in your tennis courts. In the winter it was sledding down your hill by the tennis courts and when the snow was good, ending the runs on the ice-skating rink.
I learned how to ice skate on your rink which was usually flooded to freeze in November. I spent many afternoons after school and weekend days and evenings ice skating on your rink.
Many friendships were made warming up around the coal stove in your warming house. It was the place to be during those long winters in Minnesota.
Once I started first grade in the old grade school in the fall of 1955, my dad would drop me off at school on the way to his work at my grandfather’s appliance store. Every day after school I walked home and my route always took me on your paths.
During the winters I would stop at my grandparents’ house where I kept my ice skates and head over to your ice rink for an hour or so of skating before heading home for dinner. In fifth grade I joined the safety patrol. One perk that came with that job was a free movie pass at the Hollywood Theater every two weeks. That meant movie nights on the weekend.
I walked to and from the Hollywood Theater always going through you on your paths. You scared me a bit when going home around 9:30 p.m. after dark. Who knew who or what might be lurking behind all your trees?
In high school, I joined the band and played the trumpet. I participated in many summer band concerts in your grand bandstand. Your south side was brimming with people and many others parked along the street, rolled down their windows and enjoyed the music.
Mr. Peterson, our band conductor, directed several generations of students and adults, making wonderful music in your bandstand.
Over the years since high school, I attended many family reunions under your massive shade trees, but times change. The farms around Tracy got bigger and more mechanized, leading to the consolidation of most of the small farms.
As those small farms and their hired hands disappeared, many families disappeared with them. And when all those farm families disappeared, so did the stores in Tracy that depended upon all those shoppers. The schools were the first to notice the change as enrollments declined over the years. Then the population in Tracy declined along with the loss jobs supported by our rural farm community.
And I know you have seen the change with the reduced number of children in Tracy. They were your biggest fans.
Couple the loss of farm families with kids who now prefer to focus on video games over playing outdoors, it must really make you lonely now.
You are a gem that we need to polish and use again.
I will always cherish my memories of you, Alan Hubbard, August 2021
Epilogue, September 2025: Four years later, I am happy to see that many residents, leaders and city employees of Tracy agreed with me and have recently raised money through grants and other fundraising drives to restore Central Park to the gem it once was.
A large new playground just opened where the old tennis courts/basketball hoops once stood and are now replaced with all sorts of new playground equipment that I could only dream about when I was a kid back in the 1950s.
This happened with much effort put forth by volunteers and city employees over the past few years. Several years ago, the picnic shelter was upgraded with help from the high school shop class and is now larger and in “like new” condition.
Trees were recently planted in the park and plans are underway to replace the roof on the 70-year-old band shell which has been a focal point in the park over the years with so many activities taking place there throughout the warmer months of the year. Other plans in the works are the installation of a new warming house for the ice rink, the addition of a halfcourt basketball area, the construction of new sidewalks and walking trails throughout the park and the upgrade of electrical and watering systems in the park.
There are even plans being considered to get the old fountain running again after over 100 years.
It is my hope that these many upgrades will again bring people back to the playgrounds, picnic tables and other amenities of this large park, a sparkling gem in the center of Tracy to be enjoyed by all. None of this would have been possible without the efforts and hard work of the Tracy Park Board along with financial support and many hours of volunteer labor on the part of current and former city residents, Tracy businesses and city employees.
It is definitely a sign of pride in Tracy on the behalf of its residents and a welcoming sign of renewal in the community.
Next month: Ham radio
