Staff Blog
Unreliable Narrator: FDR Park on Spring Cleanup Day
Monday, April 6th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
posted by Brian Howard
I spent Saturday morning as part of a troupe of rebel volunteers trying to tidy up FDR Park. I spent the first part of my morning picking bottles, cans and so so many plastic bags from the reeds that grow around the rim of "the lakes." The photo below displays some of my handiwork. But gale force winds conspired to create a disturbance in The Force.
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| Photo | Brian Howard |
| Choppy Seas! |
Then Darth Vader and a bunch of storm troopers showed up at the marble pavilion on the northeast edge of Meadow Lake.
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| Photo | Brian Howard |
| It's a trap. |
I was detained, of course, but after a daring escape found myself forced to try to escape from the trash compactor unit below. You don't want to know what's swimming around down there.
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| Photo | Brian Howard |
| The Walls are Closing In! |
Please share your Spring Cleanup stories in the comments section.
The Darth Vader thing is a little bizarre, but very interesting.
No storm troopers at Schuylkill River Park, just some guy throwing a rolling suitcase off the Market Street Bridge. No Mayor Nutter, either.
@phillychitchat yeah, i can’t explain it. He just showed up, possibly related to some big charity walk/run that was taking off from the Swedish Museum around the time the cleanup was starting.
Ugh. Trash.
But yeah, I love the darth vader thing.
Good job cleaning!
I helped in Bella Vista. Triangle Park, near your old place, is actually coming into being. No more fence, but wildflowers, trees, and Mayor Nutter. I feel like all the trash blew away. Went down neighboring streets, but there wasn’t much!
@Robin I saw some photos from that. I’m jealous; I lived a block away from that thing for 5 years and it was always just that busted-up old gas station.
I cleaned the other end of that thing