Maddy's Guide to Playgrounds in Burlington - Veteran's Park

 

Basics:

Date of visit: May 18th, 2024

Where can I find it? Just off Wilmington Rd. 

Bathrooms? Only 1. It is a Port-A-Potty, and it's seen some 💩

Parking? Limited. 

When open? Daylight hours. 

Review:

We ended up visiting this playground the same day as Pine Glen, due to the technical limitations of that park. This one had a functional play area if a bit dated. 

Equal parts systems for tiny arms and floor is lava afficionados

Veteran's park is an exercise in compactness. Every decision appears to have been made to compromise for the limited footprint available in the park. Despite having a full baseball diamond, there is very limited seating for any spectators, relegating this to largely a practice field. The playground is for entertaining the younger siblings while big bro' or big sis' goes to hit a ball with a stick. That is the only explanation for the limited parking and even more limited toilet facilities. 

Those restrictions understood, there is plenty to enjoy oneself in the playground area itself. While not as many swings as I might prefer, they are sufficient, if a bit on the silent side. 

My father tells me to pump my legs. I tell him to earn his pay and give me a push.

One interesting aspect of the structure is the space theme employed, complete with a rocket that can fly to various parts of the solar systems. Other children should be cautioned, however, that it was clearly not designed by a professional to have an accurate placement of planets in proximity to the sun or even each other! 

Clearly a pre-2006 design. #ripPluto

I'm not sure why they wanted a geocentric model, as that was largely abandoned thanks to the work of researcher like Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo. That is what my father tells me. I think he knew them. 

One might think that this is a silly space with no placement for education, but that is contrasted with the opposing wall that contains the alphabet with its corresponding braille equivalents, so that one can spend time broadening their skillsets. Perhaps there is an intentional dichotomy between the fantastical and the practical, with the hope of creating a natural experiment to see which one the children naturally gravitate to. Alas, such an experiment is likely doomed to fail, because the placement of the letters is taller than can be reached by expected users of the play structure. 

I'll need another 12 inches of height before I'll learn what 'a' feels like. 

Well endowed with natural wood chips to soften all landings, Veteran's park is a fun place to stop and stay for an hour or so, before moving on to larger, greater play systems that can be found elsewhere. All in all, I give it 4 Plutos.

Madelyn Hope Lewis is the senior playground tester of Lewis Developments, and a connoisseur of playtime activities. When she's not exploring Massachusetts fun time architecture, she can be found scouting out where is exactly "the line" with her parents.