Centenial Park 1.horse 2.bike track 3.Climbing Trees 4.Puppies

1.When I was a young teenager there was a girl who owned a horse and she was riding it in centennial park.I knew her from school, she lived around the block in Rocket Street.She asked me if I wished  to have a ride on her horse and I,wanting to impress her climbed on the beast.That's when the trouble began. I didn't know how to ride .I managed to get the horse to head off at a walk towards the centre of the park but the horse was spooked by someone with a kite with a long tail on it so the horse balked and then it turned and bolted back to its owner, stopping and  hurling me headfirst out of the saddle and over its shoulders.I landed very heavily without breaking my neck.

2.On a dirt track that dates back to the 1940s at least ,my cousins and my sister and I ,the Toomey family and the Fleming family and other children in the neighbourhood  used to ride around and around  the track in Centennial Park for hours on end.As it turns out my father and his family used to do the same thing on the same track with other children in the 1940s and 50s.?3.I learnt how to climb trees in Centennial Park .I reluctantly had to climb up to get something out, I don't remember if it was a boomerang or a soccer ball but dad  to help by  talking me up and then he calmly talked me back down again.There were magnificent trees in the park- so tall and the one across from our house had terrific bum stingers!4.When I was in primary school one winter (1972) I went for a bike ride one morning about 8am in the fog across the park before school .I came across a big cardboard box within the park opposite our house . I turned it over and it had two puppies in it, we kept the puppies.