I adore this neighborhood park. Aside from being a daily destination for Walking Off The Work Day and assorted I Dealt With Bureaucracy And Therefore Am Primed for Homicide outings, it serves me extremely well, no matter the occasion.
I'm generally not in the mood to deal with the hordes at Piedmont Park, and John Howell Memorial Park is the perfect, low key solution.
Here's a partial listing of all the ways I've taken advantage of it::
- Picnics. The grass is well kept and never gets too buggy. It's perfect for setting out a nice spread and not having too many uninvited beasts. There's a canopy of beautiful tall trees to provide shade and backrests. Waste receptacles are nearby. A couple of times, I've even seen people show up with their own picnic tables, chairs, and grills.
- Absentminded meandering. There are brick pathways and other soft walkways that let you wander without worry, there's nothing to trip over and there's no places for nutjobs to hide.
- Fierce frisbee. The field here is remarkably free of divots, bumps, and protruding abnormalities. I declare it an ankle-safe zone. I often run into other disc throwing enthusiasts and there's plenty of room for everyone [unless you're in one of those Ultimate Frisbee leagues].
- Grassy Bocce. Again, because of the relatively smooth surface and the wide playing area, it's perfect for a good game of bocce. There are sporadic tiny hills and mulch-covered spots you can incorporate into your game to make it more interesting.
- Bubble Making. If you ever want to make massive bubbles all by yourself and then grow startled at the spontaneous presence of Children of the Corn, this is the place. I swear, the kids come out of nowhere and start trying to pop my bubbles. I'm like the Pied Piper up in this piece.
- Making Myself Sick on The Insane Spinner Thing. The playground here is awesome. It's nothing like the playgrounds I grew up with. For one thing, the ground is covered in that rubber mulch stuff, making it incredibly delicious on your joints when you plummet from the monkey bars. It's also nice for jogging.
There's the usual fare: swings, slides, jungle gym, but then they have a couple of sculptural, cool things that make you throw up. I don't know their names, but they involve spinning.
- Volleyball in a Bikini, Almost Year-Round. They have a little beach volleyball court set up, complete with sand, sand bags, tall referee chairs, and almost naked people. It's pretty rad. I've even spotted a dude with a metal detector and arm floaties [not kidding] when the games are over.
- Hanging Out With Well Behaved Dogs. People bring their unleashed dogs to play and I've never encountered a disobedient or annoying dog. I'm pretty sure the dogs that come here are way better than other dogs. Dog owners are courteous and always pick up after their dogs. There's several stations set up for dog owners, with complimentary waste bags.
- Stuff I Can't Mention.
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The only thing John Howell isn't really very good for? Boomerangs. But after 52 tries to dislodge our boomerang from the tree branch, we realized the soccer/softball field across the street is better equipped [and free of all foliage] to handle that. It's freely available on the weekends.
John Howell isn't huge, by any means [something like 2 acres], but it's well planned out, well maintained, and relatively low-traffic. That's more than I can say for the entire city of Atlanta. I just want to kiss it. read more