Growing up in St. Louis their was a lot todo. Malls, movies, attractions the arch, The cardinals, Rams and the blue. St Louis had a lot of sports but I remember one sport that touched me and made me feel creative. Skateboarding. There where so many places to skate such as downtown of alley skate park, Hazelwood mall skate park, ramp riders indoor skatepark, but the one that impacted my life the most is kings highway.

Kings highway is located around the Rome in at Louis, I lived by Forrest park and the skatepark was in couple mile walking distance. Yet it was free as every other skate park was indoor or you had to pay for it. People in St. Louis started this skate park underneath a bridge and made a box out of brick and old railroad railing, soon it started to develop into more of a skate park, people would pitch money together to creative a skatepark that was free, but far from a skatepark it was. It was illegal what we where doing.  Over period of two years I lived down in St. Louis we would build a new part every day. Summer of 2013 I moved to Columbia, Mo where I soon left the Diy skatepark back in St. Louis and started skating on campus and downtown.

Summer 2015 I was going on a road trip to St. Louis for a cardinals baseball game, but not just a game I was going to relive my child hood, yet did I know it didn't exist. Me my mom and my brother coming from the game dressed in Cardinals jerseys, pull off I-70 onto kings highway. As we passed what used to be my old home I look over and notice it looks abandoned as if every house was abandons but had cars out front, a slum area. We approach the uhal building which was right around the corner from the bridge, we popped  around the turn to notice detour ahead. No bridge.

What once was a second home to me that I spent every day at for three years was gone. What used to be a bridge with a staircase going up to the top with a chained in walkway, vines growing through each loop hole of the chains. Was now gone. The graffitied ramps and box witch I used to shed blood on was gone. The bridge that sat almost 50 feet high the cover the park as if it was a indoor park because of shade produced by the bridge was gone.

Everything my childhood dream worked for was gone. I stepped out of the 2003 Chevy Impala just to walk up to where I used to shred and live my dream. The that dream was insistent, gone, destroyed, why? I walked over to find a brick we used for a box. The brick was covered in quickcrect which was a fast drying concert we used to mold the bricks together. The brick was dark red and said city of stl on it and was cover in graffiti. Then as I advanced back toward my moms car I noticed a paper with water damage that was barley readable, but I made out the words demolition and 78 year old.

Ever time I see a picture of it, or hear about it, I think of the dream I had that came true and was crushed, but lives on with me and many other local skaters who put their valued time into this skate park to make it what it was. It was my home away from home as t was for many other people.  I will never for get kings highway skatepark. When people say kings highway they think of the Rome restaurants, slowest highways in St. Louis or a bad area of St. Louis, but I see it as a dream.