Retiring Director Recounts 'Glory Days' of Parks and Recreation

After 40 years in the parks and recreation business, Oakdale Parks and Recreation Director Bruce Anderson is calling it quits at the end of June. Anderson, who has a degree in theater (as well as a degree in parks and recreation administration), got his first taste of the business while teaching drama for the city of Richfield in 1970. His first full-time job was as parks and recreation director for the city of Rosemount. He has also been the parks and recreation director for the cities of Mounds View, Inver Grove Heights and Maplewood, where he spent 15 years before coming out of a brief retirement to work in Oakdale in 2007. 

Oakdale Patch Editor Patty Busse sat down with Anderson to talk about his experiences over the years.

Oakdale Patch: Tell me about the changes in the parks and recreation field over the years.

Bruce Anderson: Things have obviously changed. The ‘70s and ‘80s in my opinion were kind of the glory years of parks and recreation, and the reason I say that is No. 1, regarding programs, we were the only show in town. I remember it vividly when I was the assistant director in Maplewood [in the 1970s]. We would go take kids for a summer trip down the Apple River, we would take 12 buses, 6-700 kids. It was just amazing. That was the time, when it was more the Ozzie and Harriet type of life. We would run summer playgrounds at 8 to 12 sites and they were free and kids would go to the park from 9 o’clock in the morning to 5 o’clock at night. We’d have playgrounds of 60 to 100 kids during the day. We were in-effect kind of the summer day care system—all free. The second thing that I remember as part of that, we ran a very large day camp program out at Silver Lake … Camp Silver Maple. It filled up in a day. People would line up 100 deep. But we had our own bus, so we ran a school bus route through the city that we would actually pick kids up and they would go to day camp at Camp Silver Maple and stay overnight at the lake. That was a huge program. So that was a fun time from a programming standpoint and that was of course when a lot of parks were developed, in the ‘70s and ‘80s, so I had the great opportunity to really be involved in buying a lot of park acreage and creating a lot of trails and creating a lot of existing structure that’s here today.

Oakdale Patch: What do you think has changed over the years that has made parks and recreation programs less popular?

 Anderson: A couple of things. No. 1, we were the only show in town, and now everybody’s into it. What I mean by everybody—you’ve go the LA Fitness, you’ve got Lifetime Fitness, you’ve got all the private entities. If somebody would have told me years ago that a bar would have a softball field and there would be leagues at a bar, I never would have guessed that. We were the only place that any of those activities took place, so that’s the big thing … And another a big thing that changed, and it changed in 1972, the governor at that time was Gov. [Harold] LeVander. Prior to 1972, schools were not open for community usage at all for after-school hours. You could never play basketball or use the school facilities after school hours, so starting in 1972, that opened up a whole new element as well that came about during that time period. I think because everybody else got in the business, I think that changed a great deal, but it was a difference in innocence. At that time kids rode their bicycles everywhere and there weren’t as many helicopter parents. The concerns of kidnapping, it was such a much more innocent period and there was a great deal more trust, I think, or maybe innocence is the word, especially from a programming standpoint. I think the other thing was that—this is really significant to me—I believe if I had to look back at my career, one of the biggest things that has changed in our profession is the emphasis on revenue and fee-supported classes. Back then, playgrounds were free—it was part of the public service that you would provide. It was an expectation that you would provide recreation programs for kids in the summer. And now, recreation departments are so much more dependent and responsible for being self-supporting and generating revenue that we’re expensive. So, I think what’s happened is that there’s a lot of people that just can’t afford our programs today, and I think we’ve lost sight of our public mission of providing recreation programs at little or no cost to young people as part of the role of society. That’s pretty philosophical, but I really believe that deeply, and of course I’m going to tie that into the obesity thing and everything else that happens today where kids aren’t as active today. And then of course technology’s changed so much today. You had the TV, but everybody played outdoors in the ‘60s and ‘70s and you would never—my mother would have never let me be in the house on a summer day and anybody in our generation would tell you that. So all those kinds of factors I think added to change that.

Oakdale Patch: Do you feel like kids today are missing out?

Anderson: You know, I don’t know the answer to that. There’s a book that’s really significant called Last Child in the Woods where they make a very strong argument that there’s nature deprivation for children today. I don’t think kids are outdoors as much as they need to be, so I think that’s sad, and so I think that leisure habits have certainly changed and I think technology’s an awfully big piece as to why they have changed. So are kids less well off today? I don’t know. I hate old people talk. I don’t know the answer to that.

Oakdale Patch: Where do you see things going? Is there a trend toward kids getting out into nature more?

I think it’s back to the future, and what I mean by that is that I think—largely because of the economy—I think that people are coming back in bigger numbers to the public parks and outdoor usage, so I’m optimistic from that standpoint. I think that you’re certainly seeing an increase in your outdoor fitness piece from the hiking and the biking and the cross-country skiing and the snowshoeing, the free outdoor recreation use, so I think there’s starting to be an increase in that. But you’re still competing with that—what is the average kid spending six to 10 hours per day in front of a screen?—I think that’s a pretty fair number. So that’s a real challenge as to how you get people outdoors and how you get them more actively involved, but I’m slowly starting to see some change. We’re not there yet, but I think there is getting to be more outdoor active use. We’re certainly not to where we were in the ‘60s and ‘70s, but I think you’re starting to see a little bit of a movement of kids being outdoors.

Oakdale Patch: I have to ask you about your voicemail greeting, do you have a new quote on there every day?

Anderson: Yes, I do. Every weekday. That’s something that certainly I don’t know if I’m known for, but I have done it for 15 years. I’ve always done it and most people think it’s kind of fun, but some people have found it to be, “quit talking and don’t waste my 30 seconds of time.” That may go back to my theater time, that I like to chitchat and entertain. Most of them I have in my head, sometimes I use a quote book. It’s Helen Keller today because of the sun. I usually have a reason. [The day’s quote was “Keep your face to the sunshine and you will never see the shadow.]

Oakdale Patch: Do you ever repeat them?

Anderson: I try not to, but sometimes I do. I find quotes inspirational. There’s a thing called Simple Truths that I get every day that’s an email, so sometimes I get them from there too. Something else that I’ve done, this has become a compulsion, I have for certainly 10 years and I want to think longer than that, every week I send out three personal notes … I was listening on the news last night, kids no longer can write, I think I might be carrying on that tradition. I’m not very technologically savvy and so I think my whole career’s been built on people and relationships, so I think that’s what I’m really doing if I had to analyze it in any depth. I just love getting handwritten notes, so I think they’re very special. I save them. I don’t save any old emails.

Oakdale Patch: What are your plans after you retire?

Anderson: I’m working on it. Travel’s going to be a big piece of our life. … My real passion in the summer is bicycle riding. I hope to get 2-3,000 miles on my bike this summer. We’re avid campers so we’re taking a month-long camping trip starting July 5 up through the Canadian Rockies. Our daughter’s in the process of traveling around the world and we’re hoping to meet up with them in New Zealand in January or February. Then our big plan is to get certified with ESL, English as a Second Language, and possibly relocate to Shanghai—to China. We were there in November and kind of like the country and there’s a big demand for ESL teachers. … And the peace corps is another option.

Oakdale Patch: Why do you want to live abroad?

Anderson: I really believe that travel and meeting people internationally is the key factor in developing world peace. I still hold on to those old values. … It makes it more difficult and more challenging to go to war with people that are your friends.

Oakdale Patch: What will you miss most about your career?

Anderson: I’ll certainly miss the people and the challenges. I’m more passionate about this field today than I was 40 years ago. The need and the demand for quality public parks and recreation, I would argue, is greater than it was 40 years ago. And so I’m going to miss that sense of being part of  a team that makes a difference. I may be naive about this, but I still believe in the public sector. I still believe that government does good things, and I think it’s a good value, and so I will miss that sharing and working with the dedicated public servants.