Hiawatha Park

Hiawatha was my old neighborhood park, as it seemed to be everyone’s in the O and P-​streets on the far-​NW side of Chicago. I think the city planners nailed its location perfectly at Addison and Forest Preserve Drive, placing it exactly between Irving, Belmont, Oriole and Cumberland. Everyone in that neighborhood is just a few blocks walk from this park. And the two nearest elementary schools (St. Francis Borgia and Canty) are no more than 1 – 2 blocks away.
There’s always joggers or walkers at any time of day or night in this park. The perimeter of the entire park is 2/​3-​mile. I remember the night before my first son was born, to accelerate the contractions, my wife and I walked 2 laps around Hiawatha at 2 AM on a sultry July night before going to the hospital for the labor and delivery. We found out we weren’t the only sleepless ones walking at that hour. We also saw another couple feverishly working on a baby of their own in a parked car, though they were about 9 months behind us in their planning.
Parking is a problem at Hiawatha. The tiny lot behind the field house might as well not be there at all. Most people park along Forest Preserve or Cornelia. With all the baseball games happening, you could have several hundred people at the park on any given day. Best to walk or bike it if you’re from the area. You need the exercise anyway.
Their playground is an aging wooden and steel set of play structures, but challenging and fun nonetheless. It is located at the pointy end of the park at Panama, right at the beginning of my so-​called Panama Expressway. Lots of Polish kids and their families come to play on the slides, swings, and bridges. There’s also a sprinkler play area that’s fun in the summer.
And a good night to come or avoid, depending on your fancy, is 4^th of July. For some odd reason, around 9 PM, hundreds of people descend on the park with lawn chairs and coolers in tow and no police seems to be in the area at all. Amateur pyrotechnicians put on an immersive experience of smoky, loud and spark-​filled fireworks more intense than any IMAX movie you’ve seen. Look out for flaming debris falling from trees too. Everyone has a good time and goes home by about 11 PM.
Years ago on warm summer nights, there used to be a group of older Italian guys who played bocce on the white gravel courts behind the fieldhouse. The bocce courts still remain, though many of the men may have moved on to the bocce courts up in the blue sky. No longer tended, the courts are now filling up with weeds — and the occasional reckless teens smoking weeds of their own behind the building.
In all its useful ways, Hiawatha captures the spirit of this NW-​side neighborhood.