Tyler families take it easy with tennis, swimming, and fishing on Fourth of July
Published 1:18 pm Thursday, July 4, 2019
- Lexi Sherman of Tyler helps her son Elijah Simmons, 1, on the slide at the playground outside of the Glass Recreation Center on July 4, 2019. (Sarah A. Miller/Tyler Morning Telegraph)
Six pairs of flip-flops sat next to a bouncy house in the front yard of a home on Nutbush Street in the late morning on the Fourth of July.
Kids ages 4 to 13 ran into the bouncy house to get to the attached inflatable slide, with a 4-by-4-foot inflatable pool at the bottom.
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When the kids reached the bottom, often traveling in pairs, they splashed water 6 feet away into the driveway, even hitting their dad, Ray Marquez, 28, who stood watching.
“We were gonna take off, and I have all my kids,” Marquez said. He has six kids total, and four of them live in Michigan, he said. He rented the bouncy house for the day and will return it on Friday.
The Marquez family was one of many in Tyler that chose to spend their holiday outside, and then hold a cookout in the afternoon. All over Tyler, people could be seen sitting on their porches, fixing lawnmowers, fishing, and generally taking it easy.
Ray Reilly, 55, took his two daughters to Fun Forest Park to play tennis in the morning. They had spent the month of June taking lessons through the city of Tyler, and he thought it was a good opportunity to practice.
Reilly held a black mesh bag of tennis balls and threw them one by one to the other side of the net, where Cassie, 11, and Courtney, 10, took turns hitting them to the other side, way past their dad.
In the evening, Reilly said the family planned to have 30 people at their home off Texas Highway 31, cook, swim, and let the kids ride golf carts. Then, they would all go to a warehouse he has at Lindsey Park and watch the annual fireworks show.
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At Woldert Park, Lexi Sherman, 28, played with her 1-year-old son, Elijah. She held his hand and stood behind him to help him walk up the stairs to get to the slide. He would only go down the slide with her help.
On the deck stretching over the pond at the bottom of the hill at Woldert Park, the Moaning family was baiting their hooks with night crawlers and casting out their lines.
“We’re recreational fishing,” said Eric Moaning, 47. “If I go to the lake, I’m gonna bring chicken liver with me, or minnows.”
Their daughter, Eruinna Moaning, 11, said she likes to fish. The family used to go to a nearby fishing hole but doesn’t do that anymore.
Schwanda Moaning, 46, sat in a lawn chair looking on, taking care of the family’s 1-year-old dog, Princess.
What kind of fish does the family expect to catch in the pond?
“Probably nothing,” Eric Moaning said.
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