Green Gates Park

When I was a kid, my Mom would occasionally take us to Green Gates Park to feed the ducks or walk the trails. In hindsight, she was probably losing her mind at home with four kids and needed a place to let us run around. I have vague, happy memories of the place.

Since we're here on Long Island for the summer, I wanted to find Green Gates again. My sisters and my Mom don't remember it at all and when I gave them an idea of where I thought it was, they came up with the name of a completely different park. A google search produced nothing. I started to wonder if my memory was wrong.

I turned to Facebook, asking my old hometown buddies if they remember a park named Green Gates. Arthur came through. He gave me the exact location AND it's new name. So yesterday when Greg and I were hanging around not doing much, I suggested we check it out.

Oh, and by the way, a resident sticker is required and dogs are not allowed. I spoke to a park ranger on the phone before driving 30 minutes over there. He gave us permission to walk around since nothing special was going on in the park and the gloomy weather was keeping people away.

Green Gates has been renamed "Bill Richards Memorial Park." And in the thirty years since I walked it's dirt paths, the foliage has grown and grown and grown. (Imagine that!)

Walking around the pond wasn't easy in spots because of the low hanging branches and marshy areas. 

But most of the trail looked like this.

And there were swans!

















It was a pleasant enough hour or so but not the park I remember from my childhood. Maybe you need to be 5 years old and chasing a sister to appreciate it. :)