Nostalgia for Oak Park




NPIt saddened me to read of the proposed plans to build a new park building at Mae Boyer Park. Having moved to Oak Park in early 1967 as an 11-year-old, that old park building has a lot more history than most of you know.

There was whole lot of nothing out here in what was simply known as Agoura back then. Oak Park was nothing more than a small housing development at the end of Kanan Road, out in the middle of nowhere. There were no schools, no playgrounds, no basketball courts or baseball fields, but we had that old park building, it was there for us.

Originally, it was just a canopy with rest rooms, a janitor’s closet, a storage room and an office with a roll up window for dispensing sports equipment. In the summer it was hot and in the winter it was cold, but that old building was there for us.

No school district wanted us, so they finally decided to bus us to Simi Valley, with the early morning bus picking us up at the Mae Boyer Park parking lot. We would gather under the canopy starting around 6:15 a.m. for the long bus ride up Moorpark Road to Olsen Road into Simi (there was no 23 freeway at the time.) Once again, that old park building was there for us.

When it rained that old building kept us dry and in the dead of summer it offered us cooling shade. Back then, parents didn’t chauffeur their children everywhere like nowadays. Summers were especially boring. There were no shuttles, dial-a-rides or buses to the beach, no movie theaters, stores or video games to keep us entertained, but that old park building was there, it was there for us.

From the short-lived Oak Park Boxing Club to the first Oak Park Boy Scout troop meeting, from Pete, the first counselor, to Jo, the director, that old park building has been there for us, all of us.

Recently, while walking my dog, it began to rain. I ducked under the overhang of the old park building until the cloud passed. All these years later that old park building was still there for me.

It will be a sad day when the first and most historic building in Oak Park is no longer there for us . . . for me.

Matthew Toomey
Oak Park



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