Poughkeepsie Journal from Poughkeepsie, New York • Page 1B

st III It Mi, Vr Life Leisure Sunday, August 13, 1978 Pouflhkaeptle Joumol 1 Help the kids and you help the community' 1 ByMarjIYablon life and Leisure Writer In Poughkeepsle these days, there Is a ichool playground that used to be a parking lot, and a riverside park that bore a bad reputation until it got a new look. iAnd there is a recently cleared space that Is becoming a play area for elementary schoolers who were dsked for input as to what their kind I of playground would be. All three the projects of the Child Environment Design founded, fa 1976 and I headed by David Aaron bf Kerhonksen. Aaron has designed, taught, written and been consultant to architecU on, the subject of children's play areas. "Anything that's done for kids Is usually good for the whole community," he says, The Institute began with a planning grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

That wsf followed by a Contract financed through Community Development of, Poughkeepsle to redesign Waryas Park at the foot of Main Street as an artistic reflection of local history as well as 'a place for leisure and children's Under other grants from Com munity Development, the Institute has designed and built a play area in corner of the Franklin School parking lot, and is working on another at the Clinton School. One more, funded bya grant from the Astor Home, is in progress at the Astor Family Head Start on Union Street. The workers for the various pro! jects and for the Institute itself have come to their jobs in a variety of Some have been hired under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA). Others are interns earning college credits from area colleges for their participation. Still others are high school students who are being paid so they can afford to stay in school They have been hired under "SPEEDY," Special Employment Programs for Disad i vantaged Youth.

During spare hours, when other city projects are not scheduled, public works employees transport materials for the Institute builders, or do some'of the tasks that require the use of heavy city equipment. 1 But many of those contributing their labor especially at Waryas Park are community members who enjoy taking part in the forming of their own parks and playgrounds. Senior citizens, students, scouts, parents and residents of the Hudson River Psychiatric Center have all worked at the Waryas Park site. City historian Mrs. E.

Sterling Carter has provided historical data ILLLLLLLLLLLLLvl' WmMKmmm David Aaron' the kids' for the park project. From that information, a mosaic mural has been designed which includes portraits of people prominent in area history. Artists, paid through CETA, have prepared the art work. And community members have contributed their color and texture ideas, as they helped them to apply the many tiles that will form the mosaic. As much as possible, Aaron likes to make use of structures that are already present and of discarded but useful materials.

As a result of the community helpers and the use of "found" materials, the projects ail cost considerably, less than they would cost otherwise. And because of their involvement, community members Can feel that the finished products truly belong to them. Because the Franklin School project is the one that has been finished for two years, the results of the Institute's methods can be observed there. reports that there has been no vandalism to the play area. In 60 square feet the school' parking lot, a small conglomerate of multipurpose structures seem sto grow from the rocks along one side.

Before this playground came, there was no outside play area for the children of the school and the neighborhood. Now, tires on chains form stationary climb areas and moving swings. Wooden structures are available to hide in, play house in, slide down from. Mosaics decorate the structures. Aaron points to some crayon scrib blings on one small section of the weathered looking wood.

That is the extent of any sort of graffiti. Then, there is the broken tire swing. "It wore out from use," explains Aaron: "Anything that's worn out is cause for celebration. It means the investment was worth it." On a typical day at Waryas Park, college interns, guided by Aaron, study a model lying before them on the lawn. Then they set to welding and drilling.

In the small wooden building on the grounds, children side by side with adult artists are applying tiles to form portraits in reverse of historical figures. These will eventually be peeled from their guiding sketches and turned around to reveal right side up mosaics. A photographer on the Institute's CETA staff shows a visitor, around. He points to the bus Stop. "When the seats are put in, there'll be mosaics of family people whose laps you'll sit on." "The sandbox over there that's shaped like a ship will have mosaics of Hudson water fish on the outside." He explains that a climbing structure will sport pictures of aJ9th century train chugging toward a modern Amtrak model.

When the park has been completed, the building on the property will serve as a warehouse, but also as a recycling center for age graded art materials. As a testing and design center for art materials, it will be open to teachers and students, families and other social groups of the region who will be able to visit the center and learn how to use it. 'Aaron tells of children who were brought to the park with their classes, and who have returned with their parents in tow. "This place used to be covered with cans and bottles," say the astounded parents. Nearby, at the Astor Family Head Start, SPEEDY workers and CETA staff are climbing onto a large model of the playground under construction to install a cardboard miniature of a slide that will be included in the completed play space.

Others are working on their drawings that will decorate a wall that faces the playground. On a blackboard are taped long strips of paper bearing lists. "That's the way I always like to work," Aaron has said. The lists read, in part: A. Definite: Sand play, shade, area to use imagination.

(Continued on page 3B.) MMry Jk AJmis Mfmrnm aBfcBHklklBkkkHakkkkkR Franklin School's new playground shows the investment was worth it lkHkkkHtmroT.flkIB Photo by Ralph Gabrlner, Child Environment Design Institute Waryas Park at the foot of Main Street a place of history as well as play It's a 36 year friendship across the ocean kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkHw kkflkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkKklkHkikf HBIukkkkkkkkkSkikkkkkkkkkHkkkkHBa yHj fhifa kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkBkknikkkkkkkBBuRCkkkkkkkkkBlkKK kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkfllkwiHraranraHkkkkVHkSii'lPlnl IkkkkkkikkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkSH'jRIWl IkkkkkkHHiHSkkkkkkkHkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkHkHHKKnMIl iiiiiiiiiBS8MBSiiiiiiiiiiiiiii i jjBHkeHBBkkkkkkkHklHHHkkHHHHensiiiiSi i Jeanne, and Norman Woodward, right, Len and Elaine Bard I VfSifSlSiiSiSiSii Journal photo By LaClalre T.Wood Life ft Leisure Editor For J6 years, letters have gone back and forth across the Atlantic between Elaine Bard of Poughkeepsle and Jeanne Woodward of Basingstoke, England. Once they were "pen pals." Today they are friends who have shared their lives, thoughts, hopes and worries for nearly four decades. Now they are together, here in America, for the first time, and they arehaving a wonderful time comparing their lives that have been so close and yet so far apart. It started in 1942. Elaine was asked if she'd like to write to a girl in England.

The aim was for the children to understand that there, were still the basics of friendship in a world at war. She soon learned that life in war torn England was different for her new friend than was her secure life here. Jeanne says: "I remember the planes going over on raids. We were eight miles from the nearest city and we were lucky. We spent every night In the air raid shelter, but only two bombs landed on our town.

I remember broken windows and falling plaster. I remember the gunst but it wasn't too bad." Elaine adds: "And I soon learned one thing about my British friend she is given to understatements." They both laugh as they remember about the dried fruit. "Rationing was so strick," says Elaine, "that Jeanne wrote she couldn't make a traditional Christmas cake becauseshe didn't have the Ingredients. So I sent her the dried fruit but what a job I had finding it I didn't even know what I was looking for." For the 'first 10 years, the correspondence was mostly girl talk, about their homes, families, schools. Then Elaine met her husband, Len, in 1948 and they were married in 1951 and Jeanne met her husband, Norman, in 1949 and they were married in 1952.

"Isn't that strange," asks Elaine, "we were both engaged just three years." Soon the children came. The Woodwards have four, the Bards, three. Elaine said: "We wrote constantly about our families. I told Jeanne I was going to have my children in a hospital." Jeanne "I thought, isn't it strange to go to' a hospital for i that. My children were born at home." The women agree the trend seems to have reversed; American women are becoming more interested in homebirths and British women are now going to hospitals to have their children.

Then, in 1966, the Woodwards sent a tape of their family talking and singing and the Bards decided it was time to meet these friends they had "known" for more than 20 years. So the Bards traveled to England and arrived at 2 a.m., yelling through a window: "Wake up, we're here." Len Bard said: "The biggest difference I saw was the cultural difference We Jend, to not understand, other societies, and we really need to understand the differences." Elaine Bard adds: "I'll never forget the tea Jeanne's mother set for us. I never knew what a proper tea was. And I loved the quaint thatched roof cottages." Now, 12 years later, it is the Woodwards' turn to visitThey arrived a short time ago on the QE II. Of their trip, Jeanne said: "I really wasn't too keen to fly," and her husband adds: "I had this lifelong dream to sail the Atlantic, so we said, 'Why not? The British tone of understatement surfaces again as Jeanne ad mits: "The trip was breery." Her husband explains: "It was rough enough for them to rope off the top deck." The two couples are finding much in common, such as food, Interests, but they are also enjoying the differences between their lives.

Len Bard owns a professional cleaning service. Norman Woodward is a lecturer in engineering at the Basingstoke Technical College. Since their professions have little in common, they have turned to sports as their interest. Len laughs and says: "Norman is learning about baseball. In fact, he's taking a bat and ball back with him.

However, I wonder if (Continued on page IB.) aa.oxv;CCO: saiklkhbw BKWK.K iT" Guess who's coming to dinn 't $. Unmentionables are mentioned. Small talk looms large. Rock continues to roll, TV takes Its' toll, vocabularies shrink and the arfof conversation threatens to be burled along with cuneiform and knighthood. Yet one might imagine that at least in the major capitals of the world where the great congregate, the repartee would be sharp and conversation creative, nilfPtr Tv tfll RriHlli ami au vbwmuw ui.ui; luca.a aim view of official socializing.

A former? aiR JOurnauH ana economics expert, ne VI 4w hM rftCAntlv that tfiA nnnlltv t9 Mn. i jwv venation in Washington, D.C. has declined since last he worked there In 1969. In an attempt to do something about it, he and his wife mailed out' dinner invitations to 22 guests and enclosed a note specifying the topic1 of conversation for the evening; East West relations. (Everyone showed up but I'm not advising you to try it.

You could wind up with aq awful lot of chicken in wine,) zk I guess it used to be easier. In the t'JOs there were rent parties. In the people gathered to roll bandages uuu worua raueo, ok tneir tongues, in thet 'Ms, between Elvis, and Adlal 4 there was always something to chat about. And in the '60s we went to "cause parties" where words flew. and money poured in.

In those bad times a good talking time was had by all. But at last report, H. Rap Brown, the militant black power activist of that decade was leading a quiet life as an Atlanta grocer. Enough to dull discourse in Itself, So perhaps once again it's time to savor the flavorof family pr even solo dining. Instead of having your ears bored' off by some pressing politician or your eyes glazed by some dippy mangla, mangla with mama where no words.

need pass beyond "Pass the peppers." Eat joyously, confident in the peace of "Garlic spoken here." As for me, I must confess that sometimes late at nigh far from the elegant clothes', superb cuisine and fine wines of the great halls of Washington, I sit at my kitchen table in my nightgown perusing from my nine foot stack of accumulated books, magazines and newspapers. I read of souffles "and gelee; of mirrored ceilings and patent leather walls of Alaskan cruises and Alpine climbs; a little philosophy, some poetry and a wry essay or two. And as I read, I eat from a cereal bowl full of ice cream on which I have cut bits of banana and maybe half a peach. When the magazines, the 'newspapers, the books, the ice cream and the peach are finished, I drink a tall glass of water with two big ice cubes in it and I think of all I have read, without any prattle to puncture my thoughts. Arthafmoment, no blacklle din ner, no hand kissing diplomat, no tlared hostess could appeal to me more.

Poor Mr. Jay. Give me the simple' life. A.