Candy Cane Park

I grew up in a suburb of Chicago called Western Springs, for almost all of my life. There were many of parks in and around my neighborhood. One of the parks was called Candy Cane Park. It was a few blocks away from my house and very close to my grammar school called Laidlaw. My class and I would always go to Candy Cane Park at the end of the year in the spring for a picnic. It was always so much fun when I was little and I would look forward to it every year. There would be games and food and of course we would play at the park. Also I was in girl scouts from kindergarten to fifth grade and a couple times in the spring we would go to the park to have our meetings or to do a service project activity. On the weekends I would ride my bike with my friends to the park or sometimes walk there after school. We would just play regular kids games like Cherry Cherry, Tag, Red Rover, Spud, and Kick Ball. I had so many memories at Candy Cane Park.
The park was originally called Candy Cane Park because it was painted red and white. I don’t even know how long ago it was built, but it didn’t matter to me that it was out dated. By the time I was old enough to remember the park had already been painted red and green. The park was very old and started to get rusty and apparently was becoming too dangerous for kids to play on. So the town decided to redo the park to make it safer and more up to date. After they changed the park they changed the name from Candy Cane Park to Hampton Park. They chose Hampton Park because that was the street that it was on and it made more sense to change the name since the park was completely re done. I didn’t like that they changed the name at all but I think that they changed it to the best and most logical name possible.
I was still pretty young when this happened, but I was very mad that they changed the name. I didn’t care that the park was re done, I still called it Candy Cane Park because that was what it was to me. My friends and family did the same and nothing really changed. But when I was older I stated babysitting kids in the neighborhood. The kids would always want to go to the park and would refer to it as its new name. It was weird for me to hear them call it Hampton Park. Today, I still drive by it when I go home or run by it when I go for a run, but I always think of it as Candy Cane Park. I think that whenever a place changes its name people usually stick to the old name. Overall, a name is tied to a place and when people here or say the name memories are associated along with it.