I started the Wethersfield Skatepark Project in the Summer of 1998. Being 17,
without the use of a car, no friends that were willing to drive and the closest
(crappiest) skatepark nearly 45 minutes away leads you to do strange things, such
as voice your opinion to the entire world and hope that one little town nestled
in the foothills along the Connecticut River listens. Its now 2001, nearly three
years have past. Does Wethersfield have a skate park? I don't know. The problem
is that I've moved to attend college in Boulder, Colorado in the summer of 2000,
only visiting Wethersfield twice for no real amount of time.
I would have hoped that if they did, that they would at least give me a little
word on the subject, or rather, erect a huge memorial in my honor which people
shall worship before skating the park - but that's being a bit unrealistic now.
But I really don't think they have. Reasons? Lack of space, lack of interest,
lack of a leader?
I don't think I was a 'leader' of anything, but I was one of the few who went
to the meetings, sat with the Parks and Rec and figured this thing out. Too bad
once things got rollin a bit, I had to move 2000 miles away, heh.
I heard some neighboring towns have gotten/are getting skateparks. I think
this is great. I hope to check out these parks, to mingle with the other skaters,
tell them where I'm from and this whole story that's on this site. But right now,
I'm 2,000 miles and another chapter in my life away. I have a skatepark to ride
now, its 4 blocks away and makes me go to bed before midnight so I can skate it
at 9:00 am and not miss too much work to be fired. It ran up a bill of $800,000,
$30,000 I hear was just for the fence around it. It's a crazy piece of concrete
- and I love it. I can't say I was an integral part of its creation, except for
the few dollars I donated before it was built. I missed that boat, when I was
trying to get Wethersfield to create a park, Boulder, Colorado was in the midst
of wondering what to do with a park that wasn't working. Their solution was to
build a second park ontop of the park that was already there. I've been skating
the second park of this town!
Do I regret spending time on this site? at all those board meetings? putting
together skate demos for the town? Not at all. Without creating this website,
I would probably never get into web design and wouldn't have a job now that keeps
me living independently while also paying for college. I'm 19, I think its a pretty
fucking cool thing not to be reliant on your parents. I wouldn't have met my friend
Mark, who also runs skatepark.org
and I certainly wouldn't have all the opportunities I've got now. Its changed
my life for the good.
Just remember, its all because of skateboarding,
alex Simoni Wednesday, January 31st, 2001, 4:09 am,
This was my first web-related project. I'm really sad to call
it quits, I've never done that before! This humble site was the beginnings to
a lot of learning that I've done in the three years I've been into this shit.
From Frontpage Express on a Gateway 2000 Pentium computer to a Mac G4 450 with
Dreamweaver and Photoshop abnd whatever else fits on the 20 gig drive - it doesn't
look like the learning is ever going to stop. I remember how much grief I gave
myself trying to make the simpliest of pages, how all my images looked really
botched and enormous in file size, how all my links broke, how I would find the
dumbest of javascript tricks - all the things that happen to a web nerd on a gocities
account. It seems the entire internet was a lot tinier, a lot more free and definetly
not as cool. This was 1998 we're talking about, only three years ago! No one knew
what they were doing and that's what was fun about it.
If anyone knows what's going on in Wethersfield, CT, give me some
word, I'd love to know -
-js
postscript:
I haven't written in a while. I haven't wanted to. Its a fear of not knowing what
to write and not wanting to share, and also having so much baggage as not to know
where to start. Tommorrow I will try to start again. I've already begun.
