Growing up play was for my parents, older brother and I essential to our lives. We each, adults and children, thoroughly enjoyed being outdoors and making creative use of our surrounding environments, yet we as well enjoyed travel and recreational places that gave our imaginations wings. Mom and dad brought us on many outings, some fun day trips in and out of Connecticut. There were special locations in state we visited as often as we could, simply because they contributed to our happiness as kids. Our local greenscapes and parks, such as those designed by the Olmsteds and Goodwin Park(s), were indeed some of these places… and the historic Gillette’s Castle.

Playing in our family parks as kids made for us quite a phenomenal childhood. Our parents didn’t talk much about our relatives or their ties to both local and national parks and other green spaces, nonetheless, while in these places play felt alive and magical. Our parks gave us playgrounds with a myriad of features including, water fountains (sprinklers) we danced and splashed our feet in, large green fields where we could make up our own youthful stories in the dirt and grass and, of course, sand boxes where we could build our own castles and create our own butterflies. Perhaps, the first castles we knew were those in books and on TV, like in Disney World and Land, on Sesame Street and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, but we also came to learn about the ones we could build ourselves.

We learned about many different worlds and places as children through our parents, close relatives, family friends, schools, books, television and travel. Some of these actual places we visited or we got to visit places like those we learned about. Our visits to Gillette Castle State Park happened while we were still quite young. Mom loved bringing us to the castle. Being on the grounds of the castle and going inside gave us the opportunity to see and witness exciting things, especially those things made by William Hooker Gillette, the designer, builder, owner and occupier. There was also much to do on the grounds, including picnic in the park, walk the trails and see the railroad and train used on the property.

When we first visited a real life castle we were small but big, at least our imaginations were big. Our visits to a Connecticut castle began in our own young minds, though we may not have known at the time, as well as in the sand and sand boxes we played in. Besides in our local family parks, we also got to build with shovels and buckets our castles at the Connecticut beaches where we also spent much of our time when just babies. These castles were like my older brother and me small, including any toy castles, yet they were too big.

My older brother and I visited again Gillette Castle State Park many years later. The castle still quite magnificent is now for me like a bridge connecting us … or plainly bringing us back to our childhood. Together, my older brother and I, can both be a child once more as we remember this special place in memory and in real life. While on the grounds of Gillette Castle State Park as adults… like our parents, we simply continue to realize the joy and value of play. And that when we first visited the BIG castle we were small but taught to DREAM BIG. BIG SMILE.

We have the capacity and potential to always be a blessing in our own lives, in the lives of others and in this magical and magnificent world of ours…

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