As Year of the Park continues, we will be documenting every park in Champaign, Urbana, and Savoy, Champaign County Forest Preserves, along with other odds and ends between July 2020 and THIS WEEK! At last! You can see what has been covered thus far by clicking here. If you have suggestions or ideas or feedback, feel free to contact us at [email protected].
NAME
Morrissey Park
LOCATION
1209 Harrington Dr., Champaign
Photo by Seth Fein.
HISTORY AND FEATURES
Morrissey Park has been around a while — 50 + years — since 1965, and I have to tell you, I don’t like it. I mean, now I like it, but how can I really like it when this was the site of so many Central High School post-game hangs? Everyone knows the best post-game hangs were at Hackberry Hill, the actual fucking mountain that presides over Orchard Downs in Urbana, and is far and away the best sledding in town.
OK OK, I am letting my own history get in the way of reality, which is something I tend to do at times, and frankly, it’s one of my goals moving forward to eradicate this terrible affliction from my repertoire.
This is a totally decent park, with really really nice tennis courts, that even have their own porta-potty! You hear that folks, you can play tennis here, and if you gotta take a dump, that’s OK. You can do that and get back to your junkyard strokes in no time.
Why don’t they have a porta-potty in West Side Park? I mean, after all, far more people hang out there on a daily basis, and honestly, it’s a centrally located park with a children’s playground, and if you have kids that are potty training, what the fucking fuck man?
Photo by Seth Fein.
Anyhow, I like this park just fine. It has a walking path that is nice. There is a weird sculpture that I don’t care for, and there is plenty of room to play. Look at that hill above? It’s a good one.
ASSESSMENT
I am like almost one hundred parks into this thing, and frankly, I don’t have much else to offer here. It’s a good park, off Windsor Road, and there’s nothing wrong with it at all. It’s a massive plot and I cannot begin to imagine how much it costs to just maintain this grass.
Nevertheless. Yay parks! I mean that, even if it sounds like I do not. I do!