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Lee In my "younger years" 12-18, my bro and I and our friends in the neighborhood played in the woods. These woods were about a block from our back yard. You could see them from the back yard. The woods had a very large steep hill or small mountain in them. Most of the walking was up hill. We found a place where imaginations could run wild and a safe haven to play. No such things as child predators back then. In these woods were bluffs high enough that you could see a lot of our town all the way to the bottoms and to the river several miles away. There was a large flat rock that had some carving on it but unable to read the words. We always thought it could have been someone's grave. There was a frame of an old log cabin. You could tell that it had three small rooms, perhaps a kitchen with living and dining rooms combined and 2 small bedrooms. Most of the roof was caved in and the walls all but gone. The woods covered about 3 miles or so in three directions. They were dense with foliage and every tree mentionable. This wonderful haven was a place for picnics, playing cowboys and Indians, and hide and seek. There was a small stream at the base of the woods where we hunted and caught crawfish or crawdads as we called them. The water was never more than ankle or calve deep. You could see some minnows but never any fish bigger than that. I had a friend that lived on top of the mountain. Her home was in a field with other houses below her about a 1/4 of a mile or so away. Short cut through the woods to her house. We even walked each other home at night. We were never afraid to go through the woods even at night. I grew to know those woods like the back of my hand.
Today all of that property is the City Park. Now it has a man-made lake,
swimming pool, playground, and picnic tables, ballfield and skateboard
park. Most of the woods are still there. Walking in the park is
different now but I can still enjoy the wonderful and fun memories of
that land so many years ago.
Carol What wonderful memories you have Lee. We had a woods adjacent to our back yard. My sister built the most amazing teepee in a clearing in the woods. It took her week and weeks of putting the framework up made from fallen branches that she found in the woods. Then she found lots of long, dried grasses and weeds that she interwove through the framework to make the teepee. She was about 9 years old when she made it. I had 2 younger brothers close together in age. The very next day after she had finished the teepee, they decided to play cowboys and Indians. They
circled the teepee whooping and hollering and lit a match to it. Thank
God no one was hurt. My poor sister was heart broken. Those 2 boys
couldn't sit down for days after my Dad got through with them. We
laugh about it now, but it wasn't funny at the time.
Vi Lee we lived on a farm and the house faced a big hill. We as kids played in the woods all the time. had a creek with crawdads too. Learned to 'smoke' under that bridge. yuk, got sick doing that. City kids would come out to play in the woods. It went for miles to the next road. It is still there today ,house gone but creek and woods there, but not as big as I remembered them to be. haha Sammy We had a similar place where I lived in Arkansas. I wandered in those woods many an afternoon, we picked Muskadines, gathered mistle toe. played cowboys and Indians, It was our private playground, and on the edges where there was lots of sun, the best blackberries you ever tasted. Dorie Lee, that brings back so many memories!! Us kids used to go to Kilborn Park and play on all the slides and we played baseball, tennis etc.At night they had band concerts and had stands where we could get ice cream and pop or popcorn, It was about 4 blocks from our house and all the neighbor kids went along...no gangs, no one to be afraid of, just a lot of fun. The kids now a days sure do miss a lot of good clean fun, it is not so much because they don't want to do those things but because it is no longer safe for them.. Kind of sad.... Barbara When I lived in Springfield,Ill. there was a small woods,just down the street from us.We use to play hide and seek there. I got my first kiss in that woods. So, I can't forget that. His name was Bobby and was a brother to my friend Sharon. Kath Well, I was raised in Canada, in a city called Hamilton, Lake Ontario was in the area, and we had a bay area that was home to a steel mill or two, On the other side of town was the Niagara Escarpment that leads to "higher" ground and is known for it's lush fruit belt..
Built many a small fire to roast "taters" or hot dogs, and the creek was shallow so we mostly waded to "cool" off on the torrid days.. (Oh, yes..it got pretty hot anf humid there in the late summer mths.) Of course we usually took the other member of our family "Mokie" our dog, and he'd remind us when it was time to head home..He knew and made sure we did too..LOL.. Wonderful memories... Whew...I'm long winded this a.m. well... you asked didn't you ??? LOL Hilda We had a lot of woods behind our house also and a big long gulley with high banks on each side in places and a sandy bottom. We used to cut grape vines and make swings out of them and play Tarzan and swing across the gulley on them. Also we played cowboys and indians up and down the high banks. We would spend the entire day sometimes from morning until supper time down there. Never worrried about anything dangerous unless maybe a snake or two. LOL |
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