Flashback Friday # 109

The Swimming Hole


Greeting to all who have ventured this way again. Autumn is here bringing chilly breezes and cold rains. I figured I'd give you one more warm summery post to take the chill off your blog reading.

It has been told many a time in these posts that I spent a great deal of time back at the creek behind our house. I've also told you many a time that I (still) cannot swim. You would think I would have caused my parents many sleepless nights by spending so much time back at the creek. I was never told not to go, so I assumed that I had perpetual permission to be there.

My neighbors were back there a lot too. The WWE kids, the Butcher boys, The Pershing girls and the Crooks all spent time with me back at the creek. There was a mile long segment that we always stayed in. That was about to change.

One day, a couple of the Crook boys told us of a deep section of the creek that they found. Under normal circumstances, the creek was about waist deep at the deepest point we navigated. They said they had gone up the creek a bit and found an even deeper spot (seeing that sticky fingers were a common past time with the Crooks, going "up the river" seemed prophetic).

When we (me, 3 Crook boys & 4 Pershing girls) got to the spot, we realized that this would make a great swimming place if we could do some improvements. In a spot that was about 15 feet square, we took out as many large rocks as we could, making the water chest deep. We put these rocks downstream to make a small dam. It wasn't very effective, but it did widen the creek at that point a bit.

We had no tree nearby, or bank in which to dive from. We simple waded out, and swam (except for me, I waded out and waded). The one attempt to tie a rope to a tree ended in failure. The closet limb would get you as far as the ankle deep water at the bank. Swing & let go to try to make the deep point landed you in knee deep water.

If it wasn't for the presence of the Pershings, I never would have gone back to the swimming hole. I didn't care too much for the Crooks. It didn't help matters that I was infatuated with the eldest Pershing girl. She didn't know I existed. She only had eyes Sneaky Crook, the second oldest.

After the Pershings moved away, I seldom went back to the swimming hole. If The Crooks were back there, I stayed away, or visited my old stomping ground down the creek. After the Crooks moved, I don't think I ever visited it again.