The playground at Cruz Rec Center has one of the longest play structures that I can recall ever seeing at a playground.  The thing just goes on for about 60 feet.  On the sunny Sunday afternoon that we visited, it was marked by a memorial bench on one end and a geodesic dome on the other.  Zora’s getting braver every day, it seems.  There was a time when she wouldn’t go near that dome, but now she slowly, tentatively climbs it.  Not to the top, yet, but she’s pushing herself.  As Zora hung upstairs from the dome by her knees, I chatted with the two girls that were also hanging out at the playground.  They had a cute puppy, just weeks old.  The puppy’s sister was also adopted by their friend who lives just across the street from the playground.  While they petted and pampered their dog, a dozen or so middle-aged guys played softball in the field under the shadow of a long-abandoned eight-story graffiti-scarred industrial building.

Philly Playground Project (visited: 6/20/10)

Visited: September 2014