It's a beautiful Friday morning in August and this retired grandpa is heading for the Mary Jane Davies Park with his paper and coffee to bask in the glow of the soon-to-be-opened children's playground.

What a beautiful surprise! There were the kids with their moms or dads, grandpas or grandmas, already enjoying the scene after a quiet and unheralded opening.

Grab your Polaroid, grandpa! Get this joy on film. Remember you always wanted to be a reporter since your days in the '30s at Brooklyn Prep as a cub reporter for the Blue Jug. The kids and the moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas were so patient with me as I got it on film and (with no pencil or notebook) tried desperately to get matching names for the Polaroids.

But, alas, I learned Polaroid doesn't hack it for the paper but our editor promised to get her own pictures.

So thanks to the moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas and the kids who put up with me:

Marie DeLuca, Helen Flynn, Haini Wang, Te Wach, Bonnie Sweeney, Dylan Linder, Alexa Durso, Tyson Morgano, Yia Yia Priscilla, Bob Kelly, Andrew Stack and Colette Stack and, if you call me (627-5017), I have the Polaroids.

Thank you, beautiful neighbors who made this park come alive. It will be enjoyed by countless families well into the third millennium.