In Los Gatos, California, there is a cool park called Oak Meadow Park with a playground that used to have huge slides, swings, a big old spinner thing, a Red Fire Truck, a play train and even a cement-stuffed WWII fighter plane(I think it was from WWII). To top it off, whole playground was surrounded by sand.
As a kid, this was one of my favorite places to go. Nowadays, most of the cool stuff is gone or has been replaced for 'safety' reasons but I guess it's still pretty cool. Not the same though.
Anyway, the first time I remember going to Oak Meadow was shortly after I moved back to the states from Mexico. I was about 7 and spoke very little english.
It was one of those nice Los Gatos sunny days. The park was amazing! Especially compared to any parks I ever went to in Mexico. I mean the playground at my elementary school in Michoacan was a small flat field with patches of grass. I remember going to a place somewhere in Mexico that had swings one time. So for me, Oak Meadow was much like going to Disneyland for the first time.
There was a slide in particular which must have been at least 15 feet long and 9 feet high. Or maybe not, but it was huge, steep and scary. I'm sure I could have broken a bone had I fallen off from the top. But it was so cool... man, you should have been there. Anyway, let's get to the injustice part of my story -an injustice that made a huge impact in my life.
After playing around and exploring the equipment a bit, after going down the straight slide over and over again, I began to play in the sand. The sand was dry and a little dusty. It made my hands white around the fingernails. I must have been enjoying myself because pretty soon, another kid came over and joined me.
I don't remember his name. He kneeled beside me and started asking me questions and telling me facts. Somehow we communicated that I was from Mexico and that he was American. I would have told him that I am American myself, but I don't think I realized that.
So, while we were getting to know each other, I was building a castle or a pyramid but it really was more like a mound and it resembled a miniature mountain. This mound was pretty big though, and pretty cool too -or so I though.
At some point, my new playground friend snapped and decided to destroy my mound. He got up and kicked my creation sending sand and dust flying in every direction. I couldn't believe my eyes and looked at the kid. "Why?"
"This is America! It's a free country and I can do whatever I want!" he replied as he got up and went away.
I was astonished. I hadn't done anything to that kid. Why did he treat me this way. Needless to say, I decided not to play in the sand anymore and moved on to something else.
To this day, I still wonder what was going through that kid's head.
Oh well, At least I decided that I would never be so rude and mean to other people. At least not by using the excuse that this is a free country. I what his views on freedom are today?
