Thursday, January 8, 2009

Flint Artifacts: Mott Park Rocket


This is the best kind of Flint Artifact...it's still there. Special thanks to Grumkin, who took this shot on a recent visit to Flint.



23 comments:

  1. So glad you posted this photo. I was wondering about it! Was the nose red at one time?

    If you have any photos of what the rest of the park looks like today, including the trails on the other side, please post!

    Thank you!!

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  2. I didn't take any other photos because I was pressed for time. I will tell you that the other side of the park was being used by children.

    I always loved this rocket when I was a kid.

    I wanted to take a pic of the Mott Park sign because it looked so 70's. Remember the par course, with all the excercise stations?

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  3. I seem to remember drinking wine coolers near this spot one night. I'm ashamed to admit this.

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  4. i remember seeing that rocket on the way to the golf course...during our senior year at southwestern we went down on the golf course to the number 1 green in our graduation gowns and played glow in the dark frisbee with the help of some herbal medication......anytime i've played mott that first green(no pun intended) holds special memories for me

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  5. No need to be ashamed GY... I think all the guys I knew who were on a date bought wine coolers. ;p

    As to drinking on golf courses... how many of us have done that? I think the golf course I drank on was Swartz Creek... maybe it was the 9th hole? No clue... somewhere near those Miller Rd. houses.

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  6. mott park for me will always be par course, sledding and logan hansen! i took my kids to tahoe sledding last weekend and visions of mott park's sledding hill were brought flooding back

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  7. great picture..we road the bikes there all the time growing up and we had some supervised walking field trip from st. john vianney school at the park

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  8. Yeah, we used to sled there as kids too. I think that was the last time I went sledding actually.

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  9. I remember this rocket from a time when I was too old to use it but absurd enough, at 11, to sit in it in a "cool" pose smoking a cigarette. What idiocy.
    I remember coming home completely soaked from sledding at Mott Park. Ah, the memories.

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  10. Oh man....that was my favorite toy at that playground. The horse swings and the animals on springs were pretty sweet. Later, after they re-did the playground, I enjoyed crawling under the big turtle in the sand and hanging out under there HIDING FROM MY BROTHER GORDON! Ha

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  11. Yikes...I confused my parks. That was Mott and I was thinking that it was the rocket ship slide at Kearsley. That's where the big turtle was.

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  12. What memories! I grew up a block away from that park and have fond memories of that rocket and the park in general. My first show me yours I'll show you mine happened in the tunnel between the park and the golf course. Later, in high school, as part of a movie we drove down onto the tennis court. Driving by 15 minutes later in a different car the place was crawling with cops. Phew that was close. Many more memories but those are the ones that stand out. Thanks for the pic.

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  13. Oh, Mott Park. I lived across from the golf course for years at Sunset Village, and just bought a house on Frank Street, so I've done plenty of stupid things in there. My brother and I went sledding there a couple of years ago, scaring away the crew of kids and parents that were there when we arrived. I imagine the sight of guys in their early-twenties was enough to have the parents want to get their kids out of there. We also shot a short film in the tunnel, around two A.M. in late August. It was fun. When we got the first big snow this season, I really wanted to take my kid down to the hill, but then realized that a three-month-old probably wouldn't fare well out there. We'll just have to wait a few years.

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  14. Does anyone remember iceskating at Mott Park at the bottom of Blair St, so many wonderful memory's LHM

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  15. Gosh... I can't tell you how many Kool Filtered Kings I smoked uptop that rocket. I only remember skating @ Ballanger Park.

    Cheers,
    Peter Johnson

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  16. There is another rocket jungle gym somewhere in the Flint area, I just can't recall where exactly. I do remember being in the park sometime in the 1970s after a toddler somehow fell from the second or third level.

    There was ice skating for a few years in the early 90s near the tunnel entrance, but like Ballenger Park it was just a sheet of ice- no boards.

    Outdoor skating in Flint? Kennedy Center, Broome/Lincoln Park, Whaley Park, Memorial Park, Water Street Pavilion, and the Swartz Creek Golf Course Pond. Anywhere else?

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  17. Here's my list of Mott memories;
    * 'The Woods' (Haselbrings?)
    * The snow & flood of '47
    * Mott park 'hitching' rides on the back of cars (winter time).
    * Ballenger Park ice cream socials
    * SJV football practice at the park
    * Les's drug store
    * Glenwood cemetery at night
    ...and much more

    Denny Diem

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  18. Great posts on memories of Mott Park. Keep current on the neighborhood that you loved as a kid at mottpark.blogspot.com! Great things are happening.

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  19. http://www.connectmidmichigan.com/community/press_release.aspx?id=441664

    this is a recent article about the playground.
    CH 25 also did an on-air piece about our playground

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  20. Mott Park - They used to build a pretty good outdoor ice ring right outside of the golf course club house when it was really freakin cold out. There was one of those round fireplace that hung down from the ceiling that you could thaw yer frost-bitten toes out near. Ouch! People would hose down the side of the hill so that it would be solid ice & you could skate down the hill.

    Mott park always had so much for kids to do - you wouldn't lay around watching the tube in summer unless really lazy (and of course all kids are 'bored' naturally anyway. Four-Square and tetherball were fun - horseshoes or tennis, badminton, hitting golf balls around, skateboarding, baseball. It was fun in the 60s.

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  21. OOOOO!!! I haven't seen that thing in ages! My mom used to take me to the park, and I would play in that all the time when I was a little kid.

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  22. Did you know the Mott Park Neighborhood Association has published a book called "Mott Park Chronicles"? 62 pages of history of Mott Park and stories written by the folks who made MP what it is. The book sells for $20.00 - makes a great gift. Call Pat Seals for more information 810-234-0930

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  23. Did you know the Mott Park Neighborhood Association has published a book called "Mott Park Chronicles"? 62 pages of history of Mott Park and stories written by the folks who made MP what it is. The book sells for $20.00 - makes a great gift. Call Pat Seals for more information rocket league boost

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