Memories of Cloquet's old parks

Driving through Cloquet over the last few weeks of 2018, I began reminiscing about days gone by. I pondered all the old landmarks that have disappeared and now live only in old pictures, and the memories of those who were lucky enough to have been around to remember them.

This whole thought process was triggered when I drove by the new skate park at Athletic Park.

The skate park sits right where the old hockey rink used to be, and I thought of all the fun times playing hockey on that rink as a kid. While the new playground equipment is beautiful and the skate park is fantastic, it made me a bit sad that the old hockey rink is no longer in use.

Back in the day, the hockey rink was flooded with kids playing shinny hockey. The Cloquet broomball league was hosted there twice a week. The league featured a number of strong local teams — including Al’s Place, which won a couple of state tournaments in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

As I headed west on Prospect Avenue, I looked at the baseball field and an even stronger memory came to me. There used to be a massive wooden structure behind home plate that included stands, a rundown press box and chicken wire fencing to protect patrons from getting hit by foul balls. I recalled being at the field as a kid when Minnesota Twins scout Angelo Giuliani came to town and put on a clinic for kids and coaches. All of us were wide-eyed and wondering if we would someday be the next Harmon Killebrew or Tony Oliva. The Twins coaching staff put us through the paces of learning to hit properly in the shadows of that old, magnificent green structure that burned to the ground just a few years later.

I headed toward Carlton Avenue and eventually came down the hill to Highway 33 and Pinehurst Park. If someone from back in the 1960s or 1970s traveled to the present-day park in a time machine, they would have a hard time recognizing things. Where the swimming pool and bandshell now sit, there was nothing but an old pond with cattails. At night you could hear the croaking of frogs and crickets from the stagnant water. Just to the east of the pond, there was an old pavilion which also was painted dark green. In the summer, it was used for various activities including roller skating. Another old building housed the softball field equipment in summertime and acted as a warming house in winter for the skating and hockey rinks.

While the softball field has remained in the same location, it has also changed. There is now a wall in right field, made of wood. Back in the day, right field featured a gentle slope that went all the way back to a road that used to circle the park. From the late 1940s through the early 1960s, the park hosted some of the best fastpitch players in the state. Crowds of 2,000 people would line the road around the park at night. Families would lay down blankets and have their version of a tailgate party as they cheered on players who were considered almost gods because of how good they were.

Behind home plate stood an oddly shaped two-story tower. Here the official scorers would monitor the game and the public address announcer would crisply announce the lineups and such throughout the day.

One can’t forget all of the Fourth of July and Labor Day celebrations at Pinehurst Park, both featuring a carnival that included bingo, rides, cotton candy and more. Many of the people attending the carnival would meander down to the field to watch the teams play games. Once the championship games were played, they would set off the July Fourth fireworks from beyond the old wooden slat fence in left field. If the wind blew right, you could see the cardboard coverings of the fireworks flaming toward earth on the infield and landing gently before extinguishing without any harm to those seated around the park.

Heading north on Highway 33, I pulled up to the stoplight at Cloquet Avenue and noticed the renovated Veterans Park beyond the northeast corner of the intersection.

When I was a kid, that area had three baseball fields known as Bank 1, Bank 2 and Bank 3. There were no fences back then on any of the fields, so if you hit the ball far enough, it would roll onto the adjacent field. On Bank 3, a swamp acted as a home run porch. If you hit the ball into the swamp, it was an automatic homer. Most of the fields were more rock than they were dirt, so bad hops abounded, but we didn’t care because we were playing baseball.

Our parks in Cloquet look tremendous today, but as I drive by each of them, I am struck with visions of how things were during a simpler time in my life. Hopping onto a bike with my baseball glove hanging from the handle bars, a ball wedged under the seat and a baseball bat laid across the bars — tied down with string — these are the thoughts that come to my mind as I drive by those parks today.

I suspect I am not the only person who holds those types of memories of childhood. And I hope the kids who are enjoying our parks today will have those same types of memories in another 30 years.

WKLK radio personality Kerry Rodd writes sports for the Pine Knot News and can often be found coaching softball when the weather gets warmer.