Millcreek Park

To know Millcreek Park is to know your childhood. Birthday parties, fireworks, and tentative dates are the stuff of life that make more life.
O.K., O.K., I just like parks, is that all right?! My legs are half Hungarian, and they like moving through woods.
I am going to tell ya what’s here– small areas dedicated to deceased vets. A walking path that goes around the whole park. Some parts are in the woods, some parts are out in the open. Pavilions, wall ball wall, tennis, bathrooms, soccer fields, a forgotten, peewee baseball field; exercise structures, a newer kids’ playground, and bathrooms that were open for one week like two and a half decades ago.
I have never been completely sure which and when bathrooms are open. Teens destroyed the new bathrooms, and thus destroyed our bladders. Make sure you go before you go.
What I totally love is that while you might not be able to pee, neither can your dog. That’s right, whip out the announcer on Snoopy’s bad days– «NO DOGS ALLOWED». Nirvana. My shoes thank someone.
Geese love this place so much that they feel free to defecate everywhere. Watch out for their poop on the fields and their adjacent paths. You might get to see a snow goose hangin’ with the Canadian ones.
So there is a giant hill. Sometimes you can see straight to Burlington. Bring binoculars. I am guessing that there has been some erosion, though. No more sledding. Bike rides can get a bit crazy, so wear a helmet. Kids love the hill.
Next to the hill is a small lake, created when the hill was created. No fishing there, but you can at the parks next door, Crystal and Olympia. They are stocked.
The paths in the woods reach the Rancocas. The paths are safe. The creek is not. There are riptides. Small streams meander past beer bottle clutches created in 1982. You might see turtles and frogs. You can see deer. Nonbubonic chipmuks abound. The powerboats on the creek ruin the quietness of these wooded parts. Houses border these back areas. Nirvana destroyed.
Trash is everywhere, especially recent. The upkeep of this park is not so great. What I had deemed «Plasti-​Beach» is grown over by tall grass. (It was basically old trash found at the tideline.) Old stuff can be found no more.
Did I mention the urinating drug dealers? Some parking lots also serve as toilets and scamming areas. Be careful.
The trees serve as historical monuments to love. «Bob and Sue Forever», «Patti + Tom», «Cindy and John Were Here». I still read them, even through paintball paint.
I forgot the best part– the UFO. There is a UFO-​shaped building near the tennis courts. It is a «Futuro» building. In the early 2000’s, someone actually was using it. This nice gentleman let us in. We sent in a pic of it to «Weird NJ» and put Millcreek on the map.
Gone is the whale-​shaped pool with fountain that I possibly shared with my husband when we were unknown to each other. Gone is the wooden bridge in the deep woods with the troll under it that we trundled over. Gone is Termite Park, with the modern seventies edge. Gone are the older headbangers that scared us in the deeper woods, forever unknown despite a deep curiosity of their culture. Gone is my first tryst with my friend, who is now my husband.
But the park itself is still here, and so are the memories.