First Visit to Johnsons Park

The first time I went down to Johnsons Park was to take pictures for the photo essay. My plan had been to take a few pictures in about an half an hour or an hour and pick the best eight and write an essay about what I saw and what I thought of the neighborhood. I ended up spending two hours in the neighborhood and I took over two hundred pictures. Going on a cold Sunday afternoon in March was not the best idea because there was no one out. One of the first pictures I took were from on top of the hill on the park. As I walked through the neighborhood I couldn't help but think about how different the neighborhood was from what I thought it would be. I had grown up in Greenfield, with many nice neighborhoods and all sorts of whispers and rumors about how bad the northside was and how dangerous and violent it could be. Even watching the news I saw stories of violence taking place within this very neighborhood. When I first heard that service learning would take place in this neighborhood I was not very excited or eager to go. Johnsons park seemed quiet and peaceful and if people had been out I'm sure they would have been friendly. From my first visit to the neighborhood I learned not to buy into rumors and come up with ideas that aren't true without experiencing something first hand. After spending two hours in the neighborhood and nothing going wrong, I felt safe and perfectly fine with conducting interviews and finishing up the rest of my hours in the neighborhood.