Second in a series of Special Reports:
What makes Seattle neighborhoods special, and how can that specialness inspire Maynard Park in a quest for its own specialness? That’s what a band of Maynard Park movers and shakers have set out to do in pursuit of creating, finding, or repurposing something to help define Seattle’s Fabulous Maynard Park Neighborhood.
Fresh on the heels of Fremont, the gang again climbed aboard the “Crepe-Mobile” and headed out to Seattle’s Wedgwood neighborhood. On this recent sunny day, everyone in Wedgwood seemed like they were in a particularly good mood. “Everyone’s so nice here,” someone said from the back of the van. “It’s a little off-putting. I don’t know if I trust people who are always kind, considerate and friendly.”
On our way to our target destination, we drove down a tree-lined street, the sun glinting through the leaves. We passed a bright red squeaky-clean Fire Engine, got waves from the crew, passed some kids playing stick-ball in the street, saw some other kids with a lemonade stand, passed an older couple walking hand in hand carrying an American flag, and I swear we saw a squirrel walking with a little pink parasol.
Then, suddenly…we were upon it! Wedgwood Rock!! It’s not technically in Wedgwood, but being from Maynard Park, we don’t get too hung up on the whole neighborhood boundary political correctness. If a neighborhood “attraction” has the neighborhood’s name in its name, then it’s in the neighborhood.
We climbed out of the van, and quickly encircled the behemoth rock.
Ed Mantra read aloud some specific factoids about the rock from Wikipedia:
· It’s 14 million years old…wait, he corrected himself… it’s 14,000 years old (still, that’s old)
· It arrived in the neighborhood when it was still a dense forest
· A glacier moved it there
· Dinosaurs played around the rock at one time (not specifically in Wikipedia, but we could read between the lines…)
“Do we have anything this old in Maynard Park?” Gretchen Oublie pondered aloud.
“Nope”, answered Andy Plateau, “Nothing artificial, natural, or glacier-driven. Only way we’re going to have something like this in Maynard Park is if we make it ourselves.”
Feeling a little dejected, but full of the warm glow of Wedgwood, the Maynard Park team retired to the Wedgwood Broiler for Prime Rib ($19.25 Wedgwood Cut), Chicken Fried Steak ($11.50), the Captain’s Plate ($17.00) and plenty of friendly Wedgwood neighbors to keep us company.
We then soldiered on in search of new inspirations for making Maynard Park special.
Next stop… West Seattle!!!
