Interview with Evie and Luke Thornton

Landmark Park was an influential place in my childhood, so a few weekends ago I decided to find out what Landmark Park means to other kids.  I brought Evie (8) and Luke (6) Thornton to the park to have a picnic lunch and interviewed them about what they thought about Landmark Park. 

First, I took them on the nature trail, something they had never been on before.  We stopped and read all of the signs on the nature trail. Once Luke found out that Indians used to live in the Wiregrass Area, he began pointing out things that he thought the Indians might have made.  There was a fallen tree that he said the Indians “might have chopped down” and a hollowed out tree where he said the Indians used “to hide important stuff.”  

Here is a little bit of the conversation we had while eating lunch:

Anna Holman: “Luke, what was your favorite thing about the nature trail”

Luke Thornton: “The beavers and the turtle, and one more thing… the orange snake.  I can spell orange, it’s easy to spell: O G O A N G… orange snake.  Hey, Anna Banana, you hear that bird?”

AH: “Yeah, I hear it.”

LT: “I bet it’s an eagle.  I also liked seeing the spiders and the birds.”

AH: “Anything else you liked about the nature trail?”

LT: “ I liked that stuff and that big tree and that tree where we went under and that’s all.  And I liked that turtle that was waving to me.  That’s all I like.  I didn’t like the green butterfly, I liked it, but I didn’t like it… kind of, but not really.”

AH: “Evie what did you like about the nature trail?”

Evie Thornton: “The pretty water…I think if there were bike trails like the nature trail, I would come out here all the time.  Well, as long as they weren’t longer than three miles.”

AH: “Luke would you like it if you could ride your bike on a trail like the one we just went on?”

LT: “I would… Luke Thornton would! Scratch (write) that down.”

I then took Evie and Luke to the farm to look at the animals and the Waddell House.  They loved the mules, Skunk and Possum, but the pigs were sleeping when we came to their pen, so Evie and Luke decided that the pigs should be re-named Lazy and Snore-y.  I quickly found out that growing up at the park exposed me to things unfamiliar to the average child.  For example, we came to the outhouse between the pig pen and the chicken coup, and they asked what it was.  Evie thought it was a shed and Luke thought it was a rooster house.  When I told them what it really was, they were shocked that people used to have to go outside their houses to go to the bathroom.

After the farm we then went to the church, school, general store, drug store and the planetarium. 

At the end of our visit, they decided that they liked the animals, Possum, Skunk and Elbert (the goat) in particular, the best.  Evie said, “I would want to live out here.  It’s very peaceful.”  That night I babysat for Evie and Luke and we went outside to look at the stars.  They were very proud that they were able to identify almost all of the constellations shown in the planetarium show earlier in the day.

If you would like for your kids to have a great day like Evie and Luke did, come visit us!  Landmark Park is located on Highway 431 North in Dothan, Alabama.  The Park is open Monday through Saturday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. and Sundays noon - 6 p.m.  For more information, visit Landmark Park's website at www.landmarkpark.com or call our office at 334-794-3452.