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• 1 2019-11-21T19:52:25+00:00 Introduction - Parks in a Cultural Context 16 plain 2019-12-18T15:53:30+00:00

  Much of our project was influenced by the “known” history of Glassboro. The town heavily advertises certain aspects of its heritage like glass, Rowan, and the 1967 summit. As a result, when asking a Glassboro citizen about the town’s history, most will recall these well known aspects. However, upon learning about the complete history of Glassboro, we realized that there was so much more that citizens should know about the town. This has greatly influenced my perception of Glassboro and history and general. While the phrase “history is told by the victors” is not quite as applicable today, the fact remains that our perceptions of history is formed by what others tell us. If only the positive parts of history are told, people will forget equally important parts like mistakes that society should grow from and avoid repeating. In the context of recreational parks, all people see when they look at them is the altruistic aspects. It's almost like these parks spawned out of nowhere solely to serve the people, but surely the land there wasn't always a park, right? Not only that, but the spaces there have served alternative purposes; they didn't jump from woods to park immediately, right? These are questions we wanted people to ask themselves when seeing this project.
  
  Before discussing specific examples of these spaces, let’s discuss what kind of purposes these spaces can provide, as well as their multiple interpretations. One of the first things you’ll see at a majority of these spaces are sport-related structures. Football fields, baseball diamonds, and tennis courts are all possible common sites at community parks, and they are often the site of gathering for the local communities for sport spectating. Other common structures common to these spaces include playgrounds and paved walking paths. It’s because of this variety that people of all ages can take advantage of the space; there's something for everybody. The interpretation of these spaces is someone to take note of as well. For most, these spaces serve as a place of play, community, and as a place to appreciate nature. However, and quite interestingly, these places have histories that have lead to other interpretations, ranging from sights of wartime crimes to paranormal activities. Another thing to note is how these parks came to be, as many of the spaces the parks currently occupy once served radically different purposes. 
  
  These once radical purposes of these parks have changed over time as the cultural needs and expectations of society progressed. While the spaces of many parks once held industrial sites or other hindrances on conservation, today they serve more of a dichotomous gray area  between the difference in needs of people and the environment. Glassboro itself has served as a prime representation of this in many of its parks. For our project, we examined the CC Woods (a state wildlife management area), recreational parks and playgrounds (such as the South Delsea Drive park, Town Square, and several others), and studied how they relate to environmentalism and conservation.