Before Maverick and Goose were slapping together uncoordinated high-fives, the San Gabriel Valley had squadrons of Mexican-American kids strafing imaginary flight towers from the grounds of Palm View Park in West Covina.
You might be surprised to learn that the plane at Palm View is an actual F-86D Sabre Jet, the backbone of American mainland defense in the 50s. During the Korean conflict, the F-86D made the MiG 15 its yeoja.
The Palm View Park Plane in service circa 1955
In the early 60’s, enterprising civic organizations from West Covina coordinated the relocation of the plane to Palm View. They’ll be happy to know, kids from far and wide have been pissing in it, on it and around it for decades.
But sunlight and time are disinfectants, so I let Joaquin have at it.
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- Dad is my Co-Pilot
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- Eject! Eject! Eject!
The park is good insofar as it has 2 distinct play areas for kids of varying dexterity.
Play Area #1
Play Area #2
it’s empty bc Joaquin doesn’t play that baby shit.
While the park provided plenty of options for fun, we were appalled by the amount of trash littering the playground. I took pictures.
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- Empty Bag of Weed
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- Picnic @ Palm View
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- Then Dessert!
I started to see a story emerge in the trash. Someone got faded, ate lunch then dessert and then bounced.
As concerned as I was by the litter, I wasn’t bout to pick that shit up.
The Lord knows I wasn’t bout to touch this:
But this? Wait, what is…that…
Presidents found dead at Palm View Park
Now that’s some trash I CAN pick up. I asked Joaquin if we should take the money to the park office or blow it on ice cream and he asked what time Baskin Robbins opened.
Big Brown Dad