I was away for a week moving Dad from the homeplace of 51 years in Toledo
to his new apartment in Akron near my brother.

What a great place for a childhood.  Grew up right on the Maumee River, the
largest watershed in the Great Lakes.  At my house the river is 1/4 mile
wide.  Down the south-facing former-grape vineyard now lawn-infested
hillside is a broad flats leading to the Miami-Erie Canal towpath.  Over
the towpath and into the woods we went.  In the winter, we tobogganed down
the hillside, seeking to achieve the other side of the towpath.  Up and
over was an amazing feat.  This required building a snow-bearing ramp from
the crest of the hillside up to the screened porch on the first floor of
the house (walk in basement on the rear).  Then you mist with water the
night before the run.  On the resultant sheet of ice, slickened by the
morning sun, the next day you fly with lungs wide open down the hillside
screaming your delight (or screaming in horror at the approaching tree...it
depends).

How many forts did we build?  Underground, on the ground, in the trees.
How may tarzan vines did we swing?  How many ice floes did we pole around
in the flooded canal way?  How many hockey pucks did we slap into the woods
never to be found again, except by people that populate Archaeology-L?  How
many severely modified bicycle woods-exploring contraptions did we pedal
long before the mountain bike was created as a fashion statement?  How many
flaming glue, homemade gunpowder spewing plastic model cars and trucks
careered pell-mell down the brushy hillside course to crash in a paroxysm
of smoke and firecracker explosion?  How many crawdads did I expose from
under the rocks I overturned?  How many crawdads did I sell at my curbside
"crawdad stand"?  [The answer is none; lemonade is better.  This is the
reason I never did become an entrepreneur.  Maybe if I'd grown up in
N'awlins.]

And two blocks the other way was downtown Maumee, where I could smudge the
glass case with my runny nose choosing all the components to complete my
penny bag of candy.  I could go on, but I'll spare you a paroxysm of
reminiscences.

Well, after this, I had to take the family to do something special, so on
the way home from home, we took a side trip to see the Lost World Cavern
outside Lewisburg W. Va.  How very appropriate.

______________________________________________
Dan Becker,  Executive Director            "What's this? Fan mail
Raleigh Historic                                     from some flounder?"
Districts Commission                             - Bullwinkle J. Moose

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