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Seasonal Changes at Hoyt Park
by
Ted Pacek II

 

 

Hoyt Park was donated to the city of Saginaw in the mid 1800s by a man known as Jesse Hoyt; the park was intended for the convenience of anyone and everyone looking for a good time. It is located near downtown Saginaw, on Washington Avenue near the Saginaw Children's Zoo and the Montague Inn. Hoyt Park is more an adult playground, due to the various activities taking place there all around the year. Hoyt offers sporting events such as softball, flag football, and soccer to men and women from the beginning of spring to the end of fall. During the winter the park is flooded into a massive ice rink for all sorts of people: hockey players, ice skaters, and people out with their dates making themselves look like fools trying to impress one another--even though they can't skate.

 

I have been to Hoyt Park many times in my life, and I have participated in the softball and flag football leagues and had a lot of fun. Hoyt may seem like a weird park if it is your first time being there. As I pulled in for my first visit, I was pretty amazed at the view, for Hoyt Park is like an enormous sized cereal bowl. If a visitor stands on top of the park memorial, he may think a comet from some years ago came crashing down to Earth and landed smack in the middle of the park, causing it to sink about twenty feet into the ground. While still standing on top of the memorial, looking to the right, the park is bordered by the Saginaw Children's Zoo, which would explain the foul odors experienced on a breezy afternoon. Looking straight across the park is a sight for sore eyes--a creepy, wicked, rusted fence about to collapse. There is an old cemetery behind it, willing to spook anyone there at the wrong time of day or night. By November, the park trees lose their leaves to the gusting winds and freezing cold temperatures.

The field area of the park consists of about five full-length football fields, and it still has room to accommodate four softball diamonds, where visitors can enjoy the smashing cracks of a bat making contact with a ball, or hear an ump scream, "You're out!!!" (The fences are removed in the winter, so they won’t hinder the creation of another successful ice rink.) The football fields are presently in really poor condition due to the non-stop action and playing over these past couple months. The goal posts are slim, wobbly, and clearly not regulation size. The grass of the park is fighting a battle to survive, thanks to the rather mild weather this fall. It's very blotchy with patches of dead grass in many different places, as if fifty guys went out and had a paintball war using nothing but brown ammunition.

I have had the opportunity to be at this park during all four seasons. It’s a great sight to see one place such as this supply so many people with opportunities to go out and have a good time with very modern facilities and yet a unique place to be.

Park visitors can hear the amazed voices of the children over at the zoo, and the trees are full of bright green leaves waiting to mature. Those visiting the park might experience the sensation of fresh cut grass tickling their nose and say to themselves, " Not allergy season again! !" They might also see people walking through on an almost track-like walkway that surrounds the whole park from the top of the hill to the bottom, for exercise or to just enjoy the view of people enjoying themselves in some of the many facilities Hoyt offers.

During the fall and winter, Hoyt Park completely transforms. Park employees put up goal posts for the flag football leagues and clear out the fences that were up for the softball games. The entertaining football games are played mostly in the evenings under the lights, like high school football games are played. Huge cranes come in and hook up lights to the towering posts that surround the field to provide enough light so the games could be played all night if they had to be. One night I stopped by just to see how competitive these men from the city were. As soon as I left my car I heard the teams screaming at the top of their lungs at a bad call an official had made. People were yelling, "What the hell kind of call was that, ref!!" Not surprised, I laughed at the comment and continued to watch. These fast, big men tore the grass up in their three-quarter inch spikes, like a chef with a fresh cut piece of meat.

The winter calls for an enormous mutation of Hoyt Park. People from the fire station, along with committee members, all gather in the middle of November to completely drench the field until it is submerged about a foot and a half under water. By doing this they create one of the biggest ice rinks in the state of Michigan. It's really convenient for the public and anyone else looking for a little fun. Hockey players of all sorts come to improve on their slap shots, stick and puck handling, and also to sharpen their skating skills for the winter leagues that approach. Many people just go there to fool around and have a good time skating with friends and family.

The massive rink is composed of two sections, one consisting of a couple hockey rinks and the other half being more of a leisure-type skating facility, more for people who just like to skate. The down-sloping hill that borders the front of the park, below the memorial, becomes a sledder's dream. Kids from all ages come to race their electric colored sleds, or build jumps that always seem to collapse when someone goes through it. The air is filled with laughter and excitement of young ones pleading to their parents, "Can we stay just a little longer?" Every once in a while screams are heard from children who smashed sleds together trying to put too many on a sled at once.

I live pretty close to Hoyt Park and know how much fun it can be during all four seasons, and I'm also aware of what it has to offer to all kinds of people. Hoyt has a little something for everyone, whether it's football, softball, hockey , or soccer. Just taking a slow walk around the park enables one to see people enjoying themselves, laughing, and having a good time! In my opinion, I feel people waste a lot of their time sitting at home in front of a television and being lazy. Don't get me wrong, I like to do this myself; but I also know if I'm bored I can call up some of my friends and go to Hoyt and get something going, like a football game or hockey, depending on the time of year. Hoyt Park has a ton to offer to citizens of Saginaw, and they should live it up!
 
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