Let Us Play: True Colorado Character Found in the Wilds of Wash Park

The early-morning folks on the trails at Washington Park are quiet, focused and serious. Of course, the runners don’t smile; they’d have to stop their watches and jog in place. And sure, the bikers don’t smile. They would get a mouth full of bugs. And why would you smile if you're a walker? You’re just trying to survive. Exercising in nature is a serious business for serious people who have serious things to do.

I’m not one of them. I’m too old, too shuffling along to look serious about much of anything except where to buy coffee and pastry. So I smile at everyone in Wash Park — though I am reminded by Margreet, my Dutch friend in the Netherlands, that when I give a big smile to strangers in her country I’m considered slightly deranged.

I get it.

But then, I can’t help but smile when I see a guy in a white cowboy hat standing by a tubular contraption of different colored balls and large slings and plastic piping and having the time of his life.

Yup, a true character caught in the wilds of Wash Park.

Dale Clark will be 74 years old this month. He’s spry. He’s glib. And he’s...fun?

Being a bit wary of fun, I approach him cautiously.

“People have to take a chance. They might look foolish. So a lot of people walk by me. I’d say about 10 percent will play with my various games I have here.”

Dale looks at me with absolutely no guile when he says this. Really? This is gun-toting America. This is them against us. This is a time of anger and fear and anxiety and hate all rolled into a neat melting pot where half the ingredients refuse to blend.

And look at this guy’s car. It looks like a Shriners parade has exploded all over it. This must be some sort of scam.

Nope. No scam. Unless you think having fun is a scam.

A former teacher at Chatfield Senior High School, Dale is taking his experiences in trying to engage bored teenagers and applying those techniques to adults. A tough crowd is no surprise to him.

“I would lecture the kids and they wouldn’t listen. So instead of raising your hand, you had to dance. You had to do a certain kind of dance. I took all the desks out. I would lecture and they took notes. And if they got the answer right, they got to play a game. A game a day.”

And are these the games you’ve brought to the park?

“These are all my creations,” Dale says proudly.

And he demonstrates slingshots and ball tossing and basket catching and cone throwing and flan fluggling and kerfluffling. Okay, not those last two, but Dale’s inventions do seem a bit Cat in the Hat-ish.

“I think what’s wrong with our country is that we don’t play any more. This is for adults. And adults aren’t playing.”

Dale gives another one of his engaging smiles.

Play?

Lord, in my large family work was good, work was important, work was everything. The greatest compliment you could give someone was that they “worked right along.” It definitely wasn’t “they played right along.”

“Once people talk to me, they relax. I sometimes even wear an umbrella hat.”

Dale laughs at himself.

“This is all about taking a chance. I’m taking a chance of looking silly. And people don’t do that anymore. They want to play it safe. I don’t want to do that; I’m tired of playing it safe.”

Dale supports all this free play at Wash Park by hiring out as entertainment under the moniker of Crutch Rocket Sports.

“I did 105 parties last year and I’m up to 67 this year. You have a party, I come to wherever the party is. I do a lot of team building. I did an engagement party last Sunday. It’s a fun thing for me.”

And he dances a little jig in support of his argument.

“This just makes people laugh.”

Amen to that.

Washington Park will mark its 125th anniversary with a Jubilee on Wednesday, August 7, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Find details here.