In the sunny days of 1963, kids and families and teenagers on dates had a new place to play miniature golf in Mansfield. This was during the halcyon days of the city’s expansion, when department stores all left downtown and moved to the wide open prairies of Park Avenue West, where a golden mecca of shopping and entertainment was burgeoning on the Miracle Mile.
Across from Park Lanes, and within the neon glow of the Giant Store, was the Putt Putt course. It was a national franchise so the putting greens were all of regulation size and slope, and the overhead lights spread in those graceful modern 60s wings of illumination.
The greens were proto-astroturf, the trim was cheery orange, and the balls were all kinds of bright colors. The only disappointment for little kids was on the 18th green: when the ball dropped in the hole it magically disappeared forever into a bottomless rabbithole so they couldn’t take the ball home with them.
