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Reprint Courtesy of the Arlington Star-Telegram
River Legacy Secrets are its Specialty
Arlington, Texas — February 9, 2003
SHIRLEY JINKINS
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
River Legacy Foundation is marking a 15-year anniversary
this month, without formal celebration, but the resulting
River Legacy Parks system and the Living Science Center have
enriched the city's landscape beyond time. We couldn't resist
listing our own River Legacy hall of fame moments as a birthday
commemoration.
Best-kept River Legacy secret: The Saturday morning guided
nature walks at 10 a.m. Once you've been told the names of
the native grasses and shown the hidden homes of insects and
the tracks of rabbits, it's never just an empty piece of land
again.
Most delightful yearly event: After Dark in the Park, the
October weekend that enables small children to enjoy the new
chill in the night air, ghost stories told outdoors and a
romp through a real haystack.
Picture-perfect Kodak moment: The lily pad pond beside the
Living Science Center, with spectacular flowers abloom among
the fleshy, O-shaped pads and turtle heads popping up here
and there like exclamation points.
Most daunting personal moment at River Legacy: Once, while
staffing a Star-Telegram informational booth at PetPallooza,
it became depressingly clear that visiting male dogs were
excusing themselves on the paper's backdrop display.
Best story I've ever gotten to do at River Legacy: a column
on fungi, yes, fungi. This was no ordinary toadstool, though.
The Chorioactis geaster fungus is also called the Devil's
Cigar, and in the fall it hisses and spits when it expels
spores.
Favorite resident creature: the informational opossum, Moonbeam,
who is responsible for thousands of Arlington school children
truly knowing the meaning of a prehensile tail. (Note to those
who've been away from science classes for a while: "prehensile"
means "adapted for seizing or grasping, esp. by wrapping
or folding around something, as the tail of certain monkeys."
That's according to Webster's New World College Dictionary.)
Most unusual ride: the Living Science Center's visual trip
along the Trinity River, accompanied by a gently "moving"
barge platform that makes you feel like you're there.
Most fun, secret fact about River Legacy Living Science
Center: They retrieve dozens of battered soccer balls that
actually make it through the city's storm drains and into
their waterways every year.
Best no-cost midday stress relief in town: a lunch break
on a sunny spring day at a River Legacy picnic table with
a sandwich from home, watching joggers and skaters go by.
Shirley Jinkins, (817) 548-5565 syjinkins@star-telegram.com
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Copyright 2003 Star-Telegram, Inc.
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