A note from a "visitor" to the parks

This was an email from back in August sent to me by a visitor to the park....

We were walking by Graceada Park yesterday. There are a group of young ladies who regularly practice cheerleading on the southwest corner of the park. They look to be about 9-12 years and are supervised by some adult ladies. As we entered the park from the southeast corner, a strong blast of marijuana smoke hit us. There was a small group of scruffy looking characters with bicycles, smoking marijuana and drinking beer. These were not kids; they were 25-40 year olds. They shot us hostile, defiant looks. We ignored them and kept on walking. When we got to the southwest corner, an argument broke out among these people. An extremely loud stream of the most vulgar obscenities erupted from them. A fat man and a skinny lady squared off, with both of them screaming obscene epithets at each other, at top volume. The children stopped their activities, turned around and started staring. The ladies in charge gathered the children up, herding them to the southwest end of the park. The ladies looked very distressed; the children had saucer eyes.

A very wide strong man was sitting in his car near the children. He got out of the car with an unhappy look on his face. He started walking across the park, towards the arguers. When he got about half way across the park, the arguers and their friends took notice of him. The obscenities stopped instantly. The wide man continued on towards them, turning his hat backwards. The fat man got on his bicycle and furiously pedaled away. A few other bicyclists followed him. The rest of the group headed for the amphitheater. There were more scruffy looking characters in the amphitheater. The wide man directed his attention towards the amphitheater. All of the scruffy people started exiting the amphitheater using the north exits. They exited with purpose, sort of like when a show ends. They then tried to blend in with the people in the playground area. Calm returned to the park. The children returned to their activities. I wish there were more people like the wide fellow