Unit 4- Just a Little Help Goes a Long Way

Just a Little Help Goes a Long Way

                                      We can make this community better, with the help of others

         What is important and meaningful to you? Is it something you own that you have had for several years? Or is it someone who has been in your life for quite a while and has made a huge impact on your life? For others, it could be a monument that has been around for a while and they want to visit it to bring back memories such as, an old house they grew up in or an old church they used to go to. Maybe even a memorial to visit an old friend that passed away. In Tom Sawyer Park, there is a certain barn that is sitting on the outside of the park, surrounded by barbed wire, basically waiting to be torn down. A fire happened about a year ago that completely burned down a greenhouse, as well as another building, and almost the entire barn. It stayed up after hours of water being poured onto it to try and get the flames out. Now it is being treated like a dump and no one wants to help and clean it up. In this paper, I will discuss the importance of the park and how helping the barn and keeping it up will help the park and the community by showing they care about their surroundings. Also, to keep history remaining and how important it is to see where places started from.

Part of the barn

         There are several people, such as regular visitors of the park or people who own the park, who want to tear down the barn because they feel like it has no meaning and it's just sitting there and being treated like a garbage can. Many people don't want to stop and help out our community. Mainly it's because of laziness or they don't care. Once we let one thing go, then we let everything go and that could cause our city to be a dump or not have old monuments to look at. People, who live outside of Louisville and come to visit, would want to look at the monuments to think about the history. No one wants to think about their city as a dump and some old monuments do have meaning to others. It’s important for us to keep our city clean so people want to visit it and enjoy their time here. By showing that we don’t care will cause others to not care. There are many local visitors of the park who would agree to tear it down because it’s just sitting there and they could put something more entertaining there like a huge jungle gym for kids to play on or a few basketball courts. However, that would mean money needs to be saved up to add these things in and by keeping the barn up, there would be no money because we wouldn’t want to change anything about it. We would just need volunteers to help clean it up on the inside since there is a lot of trash, as well as the outside because people have littered. If we are able to get enough volunteers in, we can make the park looking better and keeping the barn up.

         When you are at a park, you never really think much about its history; where it came from and how it began, there’s much more to the places you spend lots of your time at. Now, after all the research I have looked at, when I walk through Tom Sawyer Park, I understand the history of it and how it’s important to our community. Tom Sawyer Park is just one of the 52 Kentucky State Parks there are and it is about 570 acres. It was once just farm land that was part of the Kentucky Department of Mental Health. The park was purchased in June 1969 by the Commonwealth of Kentucky and was first opened in 1974 (“History of Tom Sawyer State Park” 1). Now, there are many people who enjoy their time walking around and getting some fresh air whenever they visit the park. The part of the park that interests me the most is the barn that is surrounded by barbed wire along the walkway. It’s just right outside of the park and it’s hard to see because it is surrounded by tall grass and trees. It's all beaten down and looks like it hasn’t been used in years and it may have some sort of interesting history. One day, as I was walking the trail, I walked past the barn and I decided to snoop and see what could be in there. I walked inside and found old, abandoned computers and desks scattered everywhere. The place was a mess; there were many papers all over the floor. I was curious as to what was on them. I picked up several papers and found people’s names on them that dated back to 1995. It just had their names written down basically like a list in alphabetical order. It showed that they were signing up for some firefighting training.

                Mrs. Sherrer, the lady who was kind enough to speak with me said, "I actually saw the fire happen as I was taking a walk one day, the smoke basically took over the sky, and it scared me because I had no idea where it was coming from. I walked over towards the barn and saw the fire and wondered what could have started it. I heard sirens in the background so I knew someone had alerted the fire department.” The fire happened about a year ago on January 2010 causing a greenhouse and several trees to be burned down. No one knows what the cause of the fire was. Some people speculate that it was set purposely but no one was caught or confessed (“Fire Destroys barn near Tom Sawyer ”1). It's difficult to figure out the origin of the fire when there were no eye witnesses. There were plenty of people around that day, but no one saw and it could have been anyone. It took about 50 firemen from 6 different fire departments and several hard working hours to put out the flames. They were successful with the barn, but not with the greenhouse or the other building (1).

         It's so fascinating to me to think about what the barn looked like before the fire because I don't remember much of it. I would come here a lot when I was younger but I never paid attention to it. I learned that before the fire it was used for storage but now it seems people treat it like a dump and that it’s nothing (“Fire Destroys barn near Tom Sawyer” 1). After the fire happened, everyone just seemed to let the barn sit there and not be taken care of. It has become an eye sore and should be taken care of. No one wants to be walking through the park and seeing beautiful trees and a bright blue sky and then see an old abandoned barn hiding behind trees and barbed wire, looking like it could be haunted. However, to me, the barn doesn’t look haunted or that it’s being hidden, I believe it shows history. Someone worked hard one day to build this barn, whether it was for farming or for storage, it was used for something. Since the land was used for farming before the park was even built, I’m guess it was used for farming to put horses in since that’s what it looked like on the inside (“History of Tom Sawyer State Park” 1).

Fire that happened on the barn

         When you are driving around downtown Louisville, you see many buildings that have been around for years. They haven’t been torn down because they have meaning to them. It’s history and people enjoy learning about where they live now and where it began. If we decided to tear down the barn, it would be a huge empty space for a while until they decide to out something else there, or if they even wanted to. No one would probably even know what the park was before it was built. History is such an important thing for society today. You need to know where everything came from and how it started or else there would be no meaning to it.When you walk past the barn, all you think about was where did this come from? At least I do. It’s something that is interesting to me to look at and think about what it might have looked like before it was caught on fire. 

         There is a huge  emphasis on cleaning up buildings that pose or may cause a hazard, the city of Louisville is working to change the system so it can tear down dangerous buildings more quickly and resell those that can be fixed. So far this year, there has been about seven buildings that have been torn down and about seven repaired (Paul 1). Old abandoned buildings don’t necessarily have to be torn down to make the city look cleaner. They can easily be cleaned and repaired with the help of our fellow commuters. Such buildings that are abandoned are not only unsightly, they can attract children and teenagers looking for adventure to play around in or to be used as places to meet for drugs, drinking, hazing rituals or become targets for random vandalism.  Making a list of specific danger categories could help Louisville monitor structures and schedule tearing down the worst ones (1). By doing this, it could cause fewer kids to wonder around abandoned buildings and end up getting hurt. Most kids don’t think about this when they are wondering around them because it’s a place people most likely wouldn’t want to go to. However, since it is an abandoned building, it could be very dangerous because it hasn’t been taken care of properly.

Fire at Tom Sawyer Park

         While abandoned places can, and should, be appreciated for their ability to stir your imagination and your thoughts about the history, they must also be respected for the very real dangers some of them hold. By their very nature, abandoned places are often unsafe, either in structure or environment, which is why sometimes they're best admired from a distance (“The Six Most Dangerous Types of Abandoned Places” 1). That is exactly why the barn is surrounded by barbed wire to prevent from anyone trying to sneak in a see what’s inside. On the second floor of the barn, there is a huge gap on the floor as well as an open window, so someone could easily fall through the ground or even fall out of the barn.

         Some dangers of an abandoned building include, containing hazardous or illegal materials (people often fill them with waste), they're often subject to vandalism, theft and arson, they could possibly include rotting timbers, making them vulnerable to collapse (like how the barn is), it could have some vagrants or wild animals (such as raccoons, deer, or maybe even fox or wolves), and they may contain abandoned farm equipment that may be corroded and can collapse (1). By tearing down or repairing old abandoned buildings could help prevent from those trespassers who tend to disobey the rules. Since they aren’t safe to be around, it would help prevent from those who could end up getting hurt.

         Many local visitors may think that the barn at Tom Sawyer Park is a complete eyesore and hope it can be torn down to expand and add new things to the park. While looking at the structure, some might wish it could be restored but believe it is too far gone. Since it has been a year that the barn has stayed up since the fire, it is best to keep it up and just restore is so it’s not dangerous or an eye sore to others. Also, it seems as if people are treating it like it's a giant garbage can. I’ve been inside of it and it does not look like how it should look like which is pretty cleaned up. There are papers and broken down computers thrown everywhere. Also, there are some school desks that have been completely destroyed. It seems as if no one cares enough to clean it up. They have also put a barbed wire around the barn to prevent trespassers to enter and damage it even more. However, people still find their way through that and get in bringing in more garbage to just throw in there. There are probably many memories in the barn and we shouldn't treat it like it's nothing and has no meaning to it. It is part of the park so ignoring the barn is basically ignoring the park. It wouldn't be that hard to clean it up and not that long. There more volunteers we gather, the less time it will take and better looking the barn could turn out to be. There may be people who don’t care much about their community and would agree that it would be best to tear it down, but if we tear it down then we're getting rid of meaning. It's interesting to have old monuments around to think about what was here before the park was built. If one person helps and cleans it up, that could bring in many other people to join and want to help out. We could easily make the park a more beautiful and welcoming place with the help of others.

Works Cited

"History of E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park ." Kentucky State Parks n. pag. Web. 19 Jun 2011

"Foundation History." Tom Sawyer State Park foundation n. pag. Web. 19 Jun 2011.

Sherrer, Lisa. Interview by Cailyn Arnold. June 28, 2011. Print. 6 Jul   2011

"Fire Destroys barn near Tom Sawyer." Wave 3 News. N.p., 2010. Web. 27 Jul 2011.

"Arson being looked at as cause of Tom Sawyer Park fire." Wave 3 News. N.p., 2010. Web. 27 Jul 2011.

Unit 4-

Jacobs, Harvey M. "Fighting Over Land: America's Legacy ... America's Future?   (Cover story)." Journal of the American Planning Association 65.2 (1999):    141. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 21 July 2011.

Scott, David, and Andrew J. Mowen. "Alleviating Park Visitation Constraints throu          Agency Facilitation Strategies." Journal of Leisure Research 42.4 (2010):         535-530.   Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 21 July 2011.

Loukaitou-Sideris, Anastasia, and Athanasios Sideris. "What Brings Children to the          Park? Analysis and Measurement of the Variables Affecting Children's Use of         Parks." Journal of the American Planning Association 76.1 (2010): 89-107.    Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 21 July 2011.

"The Six Most Dangerous Types of Abandoned Places & What Makes Them so     Risky." SixWise.com. SixWise.com, 2009. Web. 28 Jul 2011.

Paul, Fredricka. "Vacant buildings spell danger." mlive.com. mlive.com, 12 Oct     2008. Web. 28 Jul 2011.

Images-

"Barn+Fire." Neighbors of EP Tom Sawyer State Park. Web.   28 Jul 2011.

Major fire at E.P. Tom Sawyer Park Park. Web. 28 Jul 2011.

Keeping It Going

What is important and meaningful to you? Is it something you own or someone who has been in your life for years? For others it could be a monument that has been around for a while and they want to visit it to bring back memories. In Tom Sawyer Park, there is a certain barn that is sitting on the outside of the park, surrounded by barbed wire, basically waiting to be torn down. A fire happened about a year ago that burned down a greenhouse and almost the entire barn. It stayed up after hours of water being poured onto it. Now it is being treated like a dump and no one helps to clean it up.  In this paper, I will discuss the importance of the park and how helping the barn and keeping it up will help the park and the community. Also, to keep history remaining and how important it is to see where places started from. There are many people who would agree to tear it down because it’s just sitting there and they could put something more entertaining there like a huge jungle gym or basketball courts. However, that would mean money needs to be saved up and by keeping the barn up, there would be no money because we wouldn’t want to change anything about it. We would just need volunteers to help clean it up on the inside since there is a lot of trash.

thesis statement & bibliography

Bibliography

Jacobs, Harvey M. "Fighting Over Land: America's Legacy ... America's Future? (Cover story)." Journal of the American Planning Association 65.2 (1999): 141. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 21 July 2011.

Scott, David, and Andrew J. Mowen. "Alleviating Park Visitation Constraints through Agency Facilitation Strategies." Journal of Leisure Research 42.4 (2010): 535-530. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 21 July 2011.

Loukaitou-Sideris, Anastasia, and Athanasios Sideris. "What Brings Children to the Park? Analysis and Measurement of the Variables Affecting Children's Use of Parks." Journal of the American Planning Association 76.1 (2010): 89-107. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 21 July 2011.

  After talking to Lisa Sherrer, it made me think about how the barn was before the fire happened and how scared people were when they saw it. There are several people who want to tear down the barn because they feel like it has no meaning and it's just sitting there and being treated like a garbage can. Many people don't want to stop and help out our community. Mainly it's because of laziness or they don't care. Once we let one thing go, then we let everything go and that could cause our city to be a dump or not have old monuments to look at. No one wants to think about their city as a dump. For those of you who have walked around Tom Sawyer Park has most likely seen the barn that is surrounded by a fence that is along the walk path. You can tell it has been pretty damaged and that it is not in its best shape. The park should try to gather people to help clean up the barn along with the park.

         There was a massive fire about a year ago that almost burned down the entire barn. It took about 50 firefighters from about 6 different fire departments and over an hour just to get the fire out. Luckily, it stayed up unlike other things that got burned down to the ground such as some other old buildings, a greenhouse, and many trees. However, it seems as if people are treating it like it's a giant garbage can. I’ve been inside of it and it does not look good. There are papers and broken down computers thrown everywhere. Also, there are some school desks that have been completely destroyed. It seems as if no one cares enough to clean it up. They have also put a barbed wire around the barn to prevent trespassers to enter and damage it even more. However, people still find their way through that and get in.

         There are probably many memories in the barn and we shouldn't treat it like it's nothing and has no meaning to it. It is part of the park so ignoring the barn is basically ignoring the park. It wouldn't be that hard to clean it up and not that long. In this paper, I will discuss the importance of the park and how helping the barn and keeping it up will help the park and the community. Also, to keep history remaining and how important it is to see where places started from. There may be people who agree that it would be best to tear it down, but if we tear it down then we're getting rid of meaning. It's interesting to have old monuments around to think about what was here before the park was built. If one person helps and cleans it up, that could bring in many other people to join and want to help out. We could easily make the park a more beautiful and welcoming place with the help of others.

Blog of the Day: "Ain't So/Is Not"

One instance that Gradd displays a idea of an academic and a non-academic is when he mentions the hoods and hillbilly's in Chicago. It's okay to show them as hoods and hillbilly's because that is what they were called. Also, when he talks about the guy saying, "who you looking at, smart ass?" He was taking a direct quote from someone who was speaking to him. Another instance was when he was talking about the presidential election in 1956 and said what was said with Peter Guralnick. He was saying he didn't "dig the intellectual bit." It's okay to have the instances along with his piece because he is trying to prove a point that you can use non-academic grammar when typing your paper. It does, however, have to make sense and there isn't too much of it. The piece still has to be likable with bigger words and complex sentences.

"Ain't So/Is Not" Exercise #2

In almost all my pieces I have typed throughout high school my teachers always told me to write my paper as if I was talking to my friends. Whenever I did that, there would be marks all over my papers saying "look at a thesaurus." It made no sense to me because I don't talk to my friends using big words. After reading this chapter, it helped me learn and understand that it is okay to use my way of wording things while blending it in with english academic writing. In my Unit III piece, it's mostly typed how I would talk but there are some big words and complex sentences within the piece.

bold= academic words
underlined= everyday speaking to me

When you are at a park, you never really think much about its history; where it came from and how it began, there’s much more to the places you spend lots of your time at. I pull into Tom Sawyer parking lot and immediately think of how I never realized how huge the park is. There are many people running around, enjoying their day and it made me start to think about when did Tom Sawyer begin? Who decided to put in a fun filled park for everyone to come to? I begin to walk up to people and ask them what they think of the park. Why do they come to the park? "I love how open it is", says a regular visitor of the park, Lisa Sherrer. "There's a lot to do here for me as well as my kids." Tom Sawyer Park is just one of the 52 Kentucky State Parks there are and it is about 570 acres. It was once just farm land that was part of the Kentucky Department of Mental Health. The park was purchased in June 1969 by the Commonwealth of Kentucky and was first opened in 1974. “By May of 1975, the park recreation building and pool were officially opened with the assistance of matching funds from a Federal Land and Water Conservation Fund Grant”, which of course people were very thrilled to use the pool during the hot, humid summers.

My family and I have lived here in Kentucky for seventeen years so we weren’t around when the park first opened. “I wouldn’t come to the park that often when it first opened, I had to see what other people thought about it first” said Lisa. I think back to when my parents would bring my brother and I here when we were younger. We would run around the wide open field, using our imagination and believing we were wild animals chasing after each other. We would bring my brother's miniature rocket and watch as it would shoot into the sky and then lose where it went as it got too high. There were other times we came to the park to walk our dog or fly kites, no matter what, we always had a terrific time. “I have two dogs that I usually bring to the park and walk around. They love barking at other people, but I however, hate it.” Lisa said as she giggled a little. The part of the park that interests me the most is the barn that is surrounded by barbed wire along the walkway. It's all beaten down and looks like it may have some sort of interesting history. I decided to snoop and see what could be in there. I walked inside and found old, abandoned computers and desks scattered everywhere. The place was a mess; there were many papers all over the floor. I was curious as to what was on them. I picked up several papers and found people’s names on them that dated back to 1995. It showed that they were signing up for some firefighting training.

Ms. Sherrer, the lady who was kind enough to speak with me said, "I actually saw the fire happen as I was taking a walk one day, the smoke basically took over the sky, and it scared me because I had no idea where it was coming from. I walked over towards the barn and saw the fire and wondered what could have started it. I heard sirens in the background so I knew someone had alerted the fire department.” No one knows what the cause of the fire was. Some people speculate that it was set purposely but no one was caught or confessed. It's difficult to figure out the origin of the fire when there were no eye witnesses. "The barn wasn't the only thing that was affected by the fire; it also burned a greenhouse just outside the barn as well as plenty of trees. Luckily, no one was hurt. Some of the buildings were used by Jefferson Community College for programs.” stated Ms. Sherrer. I thought that was interesting because I started my first year of college there and I never heard of any programs dealing with a greenhouse.

         We begin to walk towards the barn as she points out in the sky how big the smoke cloud was and how there were many fire trucks on the gravel road. I looked up and imagined the blue sky being replaced with dark gray smoke. She told me she watched a lot of firemen from several different fire departments running into the fire to put out flames.

  It's so fascinating to me to think about what the barn looked like before the fire because I don't remember. I would come here a lot when I was younger but I never paid attention to it. I learned that before the fire it was used for storage but now it seems people treat it like a dump. Ms. Sherrer opinion is that it's sort of an eye sore and should be torn down. “I usually meet up with my friends here to take a walk and they agree it should be torn down as well. They feel it has no point just sitting there.” I would have to disagree. I wouldn't want it to be torn down since it is part of the park and has history to it. I feel like it has meaning and should stay up. Also, I’ve seen several younger kids exploring it and wanting to know more. I turn around and look at the rest of the park as we begin to walk away and think about whether the park was affected at all by this. "There were plenty of people who still came to the park after the fire. When I see the barn I just think about the awful fire, it could have destroyed a lot of the park."

         The park today stays busy as people enjoy their time outside and contribute into the many activities they have. Such as, archery facilities, educational programming, babysitter training classes, and also the Tom Sawyer State Park foundation. There are many people who don't know what the foundation or what it's about. "The Tom Sawyer State Park Foundation is a volunteer organization that contributes ideas and funds to benefit projects and activities at E.P. "Tom" Sawyer Sate Park." This foundation helps to assist the staff at the park and provides many programs and events. "I actually participated in the foundation. I wanted to contribute and help out the park because I've been coming here for years," said Lisa. The foundation began in July of 1981 when the State of Kentucky had announced some revenues of short falls that caused a significant amount of reductions in state budgets. It caused many people to lose their jobs and as well as service reductions with the agencies and departments within the state government. "I remember reading about it in the paper and realizing there's something I could do to help it out."

         They were planning on closing the park between Labor Day and Memorial Day to remove all the staff members. Citizens who were part of the services weren't too thrilled over this idea. Instead, two women visited the state officials and attempted to talk to them about having just seasonal closings. They weren't very pleased with this idea, so they began a "save the park" rally on August 20, 1981. About 400 people showed up and all kinds of TV crews showed up as well to interview people. The state officials agreed to keep the park open all year long but reduce the amount of staff. "If they ended up closing the park, I would have been upset but I wouldn't think of it as the end of the world. It is a great park and one of my favorites but there are other parks around where I live" smiled Ms. Sherrer. Thanks to the foundation, it helped keep the park open without any closings.

         Since the park is so big, I think about whether they would add anything more to it. "I haven't heard of anything being added, it would be cool if they added a baseball field since my son enjoys playing that sport." The park basically has everything you could think of. As the walkway was coming to an end, I passed the aquatic center and heard kids laughing and screaming while they were splashing and playing Marco Polo in the pool. The splashing water seemed so relaxing and made me want to jump in on this hot day. I could see the lifeguard doing his job on duty, watching the kids swimming, making sure everyone was swimming safely, and blowing his whistle whenever it was necessary. I started to make my way towards my car as I was thinking there was an abundant amount of options to take while walking around the park. It was, yet again, an adventurous day at the park.

Conclusion/Proposal

         After talking to Lisa Sherrer, it made me think about how the barn was before the fire happened and how scared people were when they saw it. There are several people who want to tear down the barn because they feel like it has no meaning and it's just sitting there and being treated like a garbage can. Many people don't want to stop and help out our community. Mainly it's because of laziness or they don't care. Once we let one thing go, then we let everything go and that could cause our city to be a dump or not have old monuments to look at. No one wants to think about their city as a dump. For those of you who have walked around Tom Sawyer Park has most likely seen the barn that is surrounded by a fence that is along the walk path. You can tell it has been pretty damaged and that it is not in its best shape. The park should try to gather people to help clean up the barn along with the park.

         There was a massive fire about a year ago that almost burned down the entire barn. It took about 50 firefighters from about 6 different fire departments and over an hour just to get the fire out. Luckily, it stayed up unlike other things that got burned down to the ground such as some other old buildings, a greenhouse, and many trees. However, it seems as if people are treating it like it's a giant garbage can. I’ve been inside of it and it does not look good. There are papers and broken down computers thrown everywhere. Also, there are some school desks that have been completely destroyed. It seems as if no one cares enough to clean it up. They have also put a barbed wire around the barn to prevent trespassers to enter and damage it even more. However, people still find their way through that and get in.

         There are probably many memories in the barn and we shouldn't treat it like it's nothing and has no meaning to it. It is part of the park so ignoring the barn is basically ignoring the park. It wouldn't be that hard to clean it up and not that long. In this paper, I will discuss the importance of the park and how helping the barn will help the park and the community. There may be people who agree that it would be best to tear it down, but if we tear it down then we're getting rid of meaning. It's interesting to have old monuments around to think about what was here before the park was built. If one person helps and cleans it up, that could bring in many other people to join and want to help out. We could easily make the park a more beautiful and welcoming place with the help of others.

Metacommentary Template's

Legalization of marijuana is a good idea DESPITE THE FACT Thousands of illegal immigrants farm marijuana on the West Coast. Billions of dollars are made every year in the United States in marijuana sales, but it is not taxed. This financial problem is a recurring issue.

Marijuana should be legal even though it is not taxed. Essentially, I am arguing that it should be legal because the United States would be earning more money from the purchasing of marijuana. Cigarette prices are already expensive and so would marijuana. It's already legal in California.

Legalization of marijuana is a good idea DESPITE THE FACT Thousands of illegal immigrants farm marijuana on the West Coast. Billions of dollars are made every year in the United States in marijuana sales, but it is not taxed. This financial problem is a recurring issue.

Financial problems may be a huge issue on keeping marijuana illegal. In sum, then, by legalizing marijuana we could raise more money through all the pot smokers wanting to buy pot. We could make it taxed and thus solves the problem with finances. People are still going to smoke it even when it's illegal, might as well make some money from it.

"In Other Words" Exercise #2

Read over an essay or article with an eye for metacommentary. Does the writer make any of the moves discussed in this chapter and if so, how do they affect the success of the argument? Then read over an essay that you've already written to see whether it includes any metacommentary. Start with your title. Does it give readers a good sense on what your text is about? Do you provide any kind of roadmap to where your text will go? Check each of the points you make, do you use metacommentary to elaborate on them? Is your text long enough, or would metacommentary help you fill it out? Using the templates in this chapter, add at least two instances of metacommentary.


The article I chose to read was called "Fighting Over Land: America's Legacy...America's Future?" After reading the article it does use the moves of metacommentary by pointing out the good and the bad of private and public land. The article lists out several reasons why they disagree on having private land and it outweighs the reasons why its a good thing. They have successfully pointed out why it isn't good.
In my Unit III piece, I do not have a title yet but in the beginning of my piece I think it shows and tells what my text will be about. I do provide a sort of roadmap that leads up to what the main point is for my piece and that is the barn in the park and what the park represents all together. I don't think I use metacommentary to elaborate on my points, it's basically just me telling you my points. My piece could be longer and metacommentary would help fill it out more.

When you are at a park, you never really think much about its history; where it came from and how it began, there’s much more to the places you spend lots of your time at. I pull into Tom Sawyer parking lot and immediately think of how I never realized how huge the park is. There are many people running around, enjoying their day and it made me start to think about when did Tom Sawyer begin? Who decided to put in a fun filled park for everyone to come to? I begin to walk up to people and ask them what they think of the park. Why do they come to the park? "I love how open it is", says a regular visitor of the park, Lisa Sherrer. "There's a lot to do here for me as well as my kids." Tom Sawyer Park is just one of the 52 Kentucky State Parks there are and it is about 570 acres. It was once just farm land that was part of the Kentucky Department of Mental Health. The park was purchased in June 1969 by the Commonwealth of Kentucky and was first opened in 1974. “By May of 1975, the park recreation building and pool were officially opened with the assistance of matching funds from a Federal Land and Water Conservation Fund Grant”, which of course people were very thrilled to use the pool during the hot, humid summers.

My family and I have lived here in Kentucky for seventeen years so we weren’t around when the park first opened. “I wouldn’t come to the park that often when it first opened, I had to see what other people thought about it first” said Lisa. I think back to when my parents would bring my brother and I here when we were younger. We would run around the wide open field, using our imagination and believing we were wild animals chasing after each other. We would bring my brother's miniature rocket and watch as it would shoot into the sky and then lose where it went as it got too high. There were other times we came to the park to walk our dog or fly kites, no matter what, we always had a terrific time. “I have two dogs that I usually bring to the park and walk around. They love barking at other people, but I however, hate it.” Lisa said as she giggled a little. The part of the park that interests me the most is the barn that is surrounded by barbed wire along the walkway. It's all beaten down and looks like it may have some sort of interesting history. I decided to snoop and see what could be in there. I walked inside and found old, abandoned computers and desks scattered everywhere. The place was a mess; there were many papers all over the floor. I was curious as to what was on them. I picked up several papers and found people’s names on them that dated back to 1995. It showed that they were signing up for some firefighting training.

Ms. Sherrer, the lady who was kind enough to speak with me said, "I actually saw the fire happen as I was taking a walk one day, the smoke basically took over the sky, and it scared me because I had no idea where it was coming from. I walked over towards the barn and saw the fire and wondered what could have started it. I heard sirens in the background so I knew someone had alerted the fire department.” No one knows what the cause of the fire was. Some people speculate that it was set purposely but no one was caught or confessed. It's difficult to figure out the origin of the fire when there were no eye witnesses. "The barn wasn't the only thing that was affected by the fire; it also burned a greenhouse just outside the barn as well as plenty of trees. Luckily, no one was hurt. Some of the buildings were used by Jefferson Community College for programs.” stated Ms. Sherrer. I thought that was interesting because I started my first year of college there and I never heard of any programs dealing with a greenhouse.

         We begin to walk towards the barn as she points out in the sky how big the smoke cloud was and how there were many fire trucks on the gravel road. I looked up and imagined the blue sky being replaced with dark gray smoke. She told me she watched a lot of firemen from several different fire departments running into the fire to put out flames.

  It's so fascinating to me to think about what the barn looked like before the fire because I don't remember. I would come here a lot when I was younger but I never paid attention to it. I learned that before the fire it was used for storage but now it seems people treat it like a dump. Ms. Sherrer opinion is that it's sort of an eye sore and should be torn down. “I usually meet up with my friends here to take a walk and they agree it should be torn down as well. They feel it has no point just sitting there.” I would have to disagree. I wouldn't want it to be torn down since it is part of the park and has history to it. I feel like it has meaning and should stay up. Also, I’ve seen several younger kids exploring it and wanting to know more. I turn around and look at the rest of the park as we begin to walk away and think about whether the park was affected at all by this. "There were plenty of people who still came to the park after the fire. When I see the barn I just think about the awful fire, it could have destroyed a lot of the park."

         The park today stays busy as people enjoy their time outside and contribute into the many activities they have. Such as, archery facilities, educational programming, babysitter training classes, and also the Tom Sawyer State Park foundation. There are many people who don't know what the foundation or what it's about. "The Tom Sawyer State Park Foundation is a volunteer organization that contributes ideas and funds to benefit projects and activities at E.P. "Tom" Sawyer Sate Park." This foundation helps to assist the staff at the park and provides many programs and events. "I actually participated in the foundation. I wanted to contribute and help out the park because I've been coming here for years," said Lisa. The foundation began in July of 1981 when the State of Kentucky had announced some revenues of short falls that caused a significant amount of reductions in state budgets. It caused many people to lose their jobs and as well as service reductions with the agencies and departments within the state government. "I remember reading about it in the paper and realizing there's something I could do to help it out."

         They were planning on closing the park between Labor Day and Memorial Day to remove all the staff members. Citizens who were part of the services weren't too thrilled over this idea. Instead, two women visited the state officials and attempted to talk to them about having just seasonal closings. They weren't very pleased with this idea, so they began a "save the park" rally on August 20, 1981. About 400 people showed up and all kinds of TV crews showed up as well to interview people. The state officials agreed to keep the park open all year long but reduce the amount of staff. "If they ended up closing the park, I would have been upset but I wouldn't think of it as the end of the world. It is a great park and one of my favorites but there are other parks around where I live" smiled Ms. Sherrer. Thanks to the foundation, it helped keep the park open without any closings.

         Since the park is so big, I think about whether they would add anything more to it. "I haven't heard of anything being added, it would be cool if they added a baseball field since my son enjoys playing that sport." The park basically has everything you could think of. As the walkway was coming to an end, I passed the aquatic center and heard kids laughing and screaming while they were splashing and playing Marco Polo in the pool. The splashing water seemed so relaxing and made me want to jump in on this hot day. I could see the lifeguard doing his job on duty, watching the kids swimming, making sure everyone was swimming safely, and blowing his whistle whenever it was necessary. I started to make my way towards my car as I was thinking there was an abundant amount of options to take while walking around the park. It was, yet again, an adventurous day at the park.

Conclusion/Proposal

         After talking to Lisa Sherrer, it made me think about how the barn was before the fire happened and how scared people were when they saw it. There are several people who want to tear down the barn because they feel like it has no meaning and it's just sitting there and being treated like a garbage can. Many people don't want to stop and help out our community. Mainly it's because of laziness or they don't care. Once we let one thing go, then we let everything go and that could cause our city to be a dump or not have old monuments to look at. No one wants to think about their city as a dump. For those of you who have walked around Tom Sawyer Park has most likely seen the barn that is surrounded by a fence that is along the walk path. You can tell it has been pretty damaged and that it is not in its best shape. The park should try to gather people to help clean up the barn along with the park.

         There was a massive fire about a year ago that almost burned down the entire barn. It took about 50 firefighters from about 6 different fire departments and over an hour just to get the fire out. Luckily, it stayed up unlike other things that got burned down to the ground such as some other old buildings, a greenhouse, and many trees. However, it seems as if people are treating it like it's a giant garbage can. I’ve been inside of it and it does not look good. There are papers and broken down computers thrown everywhere. Also, there are some school desks that have been completely destroyed. It seems as if no one cares enough to clean it up. They have also put a barbed wire around the barn to prevent trespassers to enter and damage it even more. However, people still find their way through that and get in.

         There are probably many memories in the barn and we shouldn't treat it like it's nothing and has no meaning to it. It is part of the park so ignoring the barn is basically ignoring the park. It wouldn't be that hard to clean it up and not that long. In this paper, I will discuss the importance of the park and how helping the barn will help the park and the community. There may be people who agree that it would be best to tear it down, but if we tear it down then we're getting rid of meaning. My point is not that we should keep everything at the park at all times even when it's not being used, but that we should keep the barn since it's sort of outside the park and in no ones way. It's interesting to have old monuments around to think about what was here before the park was built. If one person helps and cleans it up, that could bring in many other people to join and want to help out. In sum, then, we should keep the barn up and help keep history alive. We could easily make the park a more beautiful and welcoming place with the help of others.