Because of personal circumstances, I wasn’t able to attend a cosplay event this weekend. Rather than start the week without something new, please just indulge me and let me present a feature about Luneta’s Children’s Playground, a quaint but marvelous place that engulfed me in nostalgia. I was on the way to cover an event one day at Chinese Gardens when I saw it again after so many years and couldn’t resist spending some time (actually two hours) and take a few shots here and there.
My parents would often bring my brother and I to Rizal park on weekends for picnics and just spend time together. My childhood may have been just a hazy memory, but there was one place in particular that is still very vivid in my mind: the Children’s Playground.
Well, in particular, the colorful dinosaur statues that have been as much a part of my childhood as chocolate. As I played there with my brother, I would imagine that they were alive and that I had the power to command them to do my bidding. I would ride on them and pretend they were my battle mounts going into was with the many other creatures in the park.
Even back then, around the 80s, the park was already in disrepair, which is why I was glad to hear that the playground was renovated last year with the help of some UP fine arts students, a truly admirable act on their part. Now the playground is as colorful as ever, well, sometimes too colorful. I saw the kids having old-fashioned, simple fun with their family and friends, running around, playing on the swings and slides and going i and out of the many attractions there.
At just 10 pesos per person, one can enjoy the many attractions in the playground for the entire day, with reasonable restrooms and places to eat. One can also find it to be a place to just rest and relax under the many trees in and around the playground. Security is quite adequate with CCTVs and roving guards to protect the public.
For most, Luneta and our other parks have fallen out of favor against malls as a place to take the family, which is sad since these public areas are still enjoyable and fascinating places to take the family. Hopefully more people will get to rediscover places like the Children’s Playground and enjoy life’s simple pleasures.
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