"As A Result" Exercise #2

After reading my Unit III piece, I noticed that I use pointing words the most. For example, one of my sentences is, "There are many people running around, enjoying their day and it made me start to think about when did Tom Sawyer begin?" In that sentence I used the word "their", along with many other sentences in my piece. I found a sentence where I used transition, "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, and also the Tom Sawyer State Park foundation." I used two transition words, such as and also, as well as, a pointing word, their. I, of course, repeated a lot of key terms and phrases like there and people. I feel like my piece could have less there's and people. Also, I repeat myself with a difference by saying Tom Sawyer Park a lot. However, it is what the piece is about and every time I mention Tom Sawyer, there is a different meaning behind it, like I don't say it just to say it. I think in this piece I rely on the pointing words device the most because I seem to use many of those words in my piece. To me, I think my piece sounds fluid and makes sense, like if it was someone else's piece, I would be able to understand what the point was. However, there are always ways to spice up your piece more to make it better or more enjoyable to read. I would want to use more transition words since it is combined with two other pieces I have written. I'll have to think of that when typing my Unit IV piece and integrating it with this one.




  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.