The Injuries Of Youth.

I always enjoy the stories of growing up that I find on Tipper's site 'Blind Pig And An Acorn'. She just did a story of her fun in the woods of her youth. It reminded me of accidents I had in the woods of the Appalachian Mountains. Pennsylvania has hard wood forest rather the the pine forest of the South. We used to play from sun-up to sun-down and also had games we played in the dark when we were kids. You can not play hard without getting into some accidental situations. I had two good friends that were involved in those accidents so I'll share what happened with you.

My friends were Ray and Davey, Ray lived across the street and was one year older and Dave lived next door and was four years older. Ray out weighed me by 50 pounds and I was quick. We would wrestle and as long as he wasn't able to get his weight on me I could take him. If he got that 50 pound advantage I was in trouble. Davey was just to big to play those games, he was taller and weigh more then either of us. Davey later on got me into fast cars but that's a story for another day.


The first accident involved both Ray and Davey. We were at a frozen pond ice skating, they made fireworks in the area. This pond was way back into the woods and not near any houses. It was a dammed stream that flowed down to our swimming hole on the river. Just to give you some background we all wore a lined red leather hunting caps when we were younger. The hat had flaps you could pull down over your ears and was very warm. We were having fun skating and Ray decide we should build a fire. There was a log that just wouldn't break by normal methods, to put on the fire, so Ray decided to break it against a tree. I could not see anything good coming from this act so I hid behind Davey. I told you he was tall, at least a foot taller then me, so I'd be safe (yea sure). The one thing I hadn't figured is the log would break and fly at an angle that caused it to fly over Davey's head and land on front side of my head. That hat was strong but a log was a little too much. The log managed to split open my head through the hat . We were pretty far from any houses so we headed for the closest house we could reach. By the time we got there by hat was red on the inside and out. My Dad was called and we headed to the doctors office. The doctor put a clamp on that big split. It would have taken 8 stitches to close the cut today but one clamp did the job. I still have the bump from the scar that the clamp made. The hat was so soaked with blood and it had to be replaced.


The second accident involved Ray and I. We both had hatchet and used to carry them and enjoyed cutting down trees. Ray's Dad was a machinist and we had used his grinder to sharpen the hatchets. Ray being a little older decided that we should cut this one tree down like lumberjacks with each of us taking a swing. It sounded like a lot of fun to a youthful brain. A hatchet is a lot shorter then a woodsman's axe. Maybe I should have remembered about the ice skating incident but I didn't. Everything went pretty well until my hatchet stuck in the tree. Ray's hatchet managed to cut through the end of my thumb. It wasn't that bad. Another trip to the doctors for a couple of stitches and a tetanus shot and I was ready to go. I never tried that chopping method again.


The third accident happened with Davey. We lived near a main highway and we used to ride our bikes on the road. Roads were not that busy back then. Even though we lived in the city our road wasn't paved so when we could ride on the State Route we would. There was this one day that Davey challenged me to a race, not being one to back down off from a race we went racing down the highway. No cars coming I decide to make a pass. I had those pedals on my Schwinn pumping away and as I started to pass I hit some loose dirt on the pavement. Down I went and I hit my head on his rear axle. Another trip to the doctors and another clamp on the head. Needless to say I now have a scar on the back of the head from from that collision.

We did have a lot of fun and did cause our own dangers back then. It wasn't like today where the grand kids can get carpal tunnel syndrome injuries from using their Wii.

The Rivers of Childhood

I was making my rounds of the blogs I enjoy and dropped by Pappy's place in Texas. I truly enjoy his writing and his poetry but today he talked about the rivers of his childhood. I told him how the rivers of my childhood haunted me. I would like to share the six main rivers that I have touched on in my blogs from my childhood in PA.

1. Shenango River - This was a steel mill river that Sharon Steel used to cool it's steel plant. I look back and think this was never the cleanest river although it has been restored. There was a chemical plant just below where we used the river. Oh my, what a scary picture I'm painting of the river. A river that still haunts my thoughts.

Like many things in life the many rivers that you had contact with changed through time. The first river I remember using is the Shenango River. We would use the Shenango River for so many things. It was a river we could walk to and so my friends and I use to go there quite often in the summer. We would go there and swim, fish, camp, wade and to just skip rocks. We had an area just above a rapids that there was a hole dug out that was excellent for entertainment. There was a stone flat beach that we used as our entry point into the river. We had a large tree that we had attached a rope to a branch. There was a loop at the end of the rope for your foot. Your friends would push you out over the river and you would jump off. There is nothing like hitting cool water as you jumped. What a wonderful experience we had with the Shenango. We could spend a complete afternoon having fun at the river. We only caught catfish when fishing but what more does a boy need then a tug on the line. We had level wide reels and a steel pole with heavy line. You could bring in a turtle with that equipment. We would also seine for soft shell crawdads that we used to catch fish in others rivers.

2. Deer Creek - A small clean creek that you had to be driven to reach.

A ways upstream from our swimming spot Deer Creek ran into the Shenango River. The PA Game Commission would stock Rainbow Trout for the annual put and take fishing experience. You would make sure you were at your favorite little hole for opening day (April 15TH) for a fum filled fishing experience. I only catch trout at the lake I fish after they learn to eat minnows. They are great fighters and I give them away to unlucky fisherman.

3. Big Neshannock Creek - A clean fast moving river that also joins the Shenango River.

Big Neshannock is a river that we again had to drive to because of the distance. We used to catch Great Northern Pike, Rainbow Trout, Large and Small-mouth Bass and numerous other species. We used to seine helgramites from this stream just above a place we called the cinders because of the large rocks that looked like very large cinders from a coal furnace. It was also a swimming spot for some people. We used the helgramites for fishing elsewhere and also at the cinders just after we seined. That was always a fun experience. We also used this river as a place to swim and it had a nice swimming hole upstream at a bridge.

4. Little Neshannock Creek - A smaller clean water stream.

It flowed through farm fields and joined the Big Neshannock Creek. The joining of the two rivers was one of my favorite fishing holes which I used until I left PA. The Little Neshannock was good for stocked trout, suckers and at certain times of year Great Northern Pike. It was a fun river to fish.

5. Slippery Rock Creek - A clean deep river that flowed to the east of our home area.

Slippery Rock was another Rainbow Trout and Large-mouth Bass stream that we fished. There was one place we used to go that had a very large rock to fish from. The rock was 30 foot by 15 foot and 10 foot out of the water. The fish used the rock as a hiding place. We used the hole formed by the rock as a fish catching place. We also would wade the creek. The Y-camp I attended was on the Slippery Rock so we also used this river to swim and canoe.

6. Allegheny River - A large river which joins with the Monongahela at Pittsburgh to form the Ohio River.

The experiences on this river are too many to mention. This was always a long trip and a fun experience no matter if it was by boat or from shore. The river was larger and the fish were bigger.

There are many other rivers I used in my childhood but these are the main larger ones.

The Summer Cabin

One year Jr and I decided on a summer project. I think we were about 12 at the time. You now how sometimes kids build tree houses. We decided that we wanted to build a cabin in the field next to Jr house. I don't know how to explain the field but it was completely cleared of trees. Maybe someone was going to build in the field at one time and ran out of money. There was a big hole in the center of the field. It could be the people had dug the hole in the field to put in a basement. I'm not sure but that is the only way I can explain the hole. The field was completely covered with a tall grass so we used to play army in the field and use the hole as a bunker to hide in. We had our pretend guns and would have running battles in the field. If you laid down and crawled no one could see you.

One day we decided to build a cabin in the hole. Jr's grandfather had wood behind the garage and we got permission to use the wood. We had 4x4's for the corner and 2x4's for the bracing. We set the 4x4's at the corners and the 2x4's to do the cross bracing. We used 1x6 boards to cover the sides and top. The cabin was 8' x 8' with one really special feature. We had a secrete hatch on the roof of the cabin for entry into it. We had a disguised built in ladder on the cabin side to get up to the roof. The newspaper boy found the cabin but couldn't find a way into it.

The cabin was pretty fancy with a desk and chairs and bunk that we had built. It was pretty elaborate for two youngsters. I had received for Christmas a base unit walkie talkie with a separate talking unit. We were able to have one person on the roof checking the area and reporting to the base unit. It really added onto our Army games.

We really had a fun time in the cabin and had stocked it with some of our toys. So now for the sad part of the story. The field where the cabin was located caught on fire and burnt the cabin to the ground. All of our possession we had in the cabin were gone. Jr called me and told me he tried to put the fire out but was not able to stop the fire. He still thinks to this day that the newspaper boy set the fire. Without proof, what could you do. It was a fun summer in the cabin.

We sifted through the ashes and found very little. The head of one hammer was still there but our toys were gone.

Memories of the Past

It's amazing how when you remember the past, the past becomes even more real. I have been doing several posts about the 50's lately. As I write one, I remember another day or time. The 50's was a fun age to be a kid growing up. We didn't have a lot, but we were rich in so many other things. You had family, friends and people who watched out for the kids in the neighborhood. There was nobody messing around with the kids then. We had the run of the neighborhood and felt perfectly safe.


Bucky Covington of American Idol fame has a great song about 'A Different World'. The message is clear and Bucky does a good job of sharing the story of a different time. There were so many things back then that we were able to live through. It was nothing to only be in the house for lunch then supper and be out until dark. We definitely had fun all day long. The kids today don't really understand what it is to play outside all day.

Dad could really whistle very loudly, something I never learned how to do. He would whistle and we knew enough to head for home no matter what you were doing. If Dad wanted you home, you went home right then. Kids back then knew how to obey their parents. There was nothing worse then to hear Mom say "You just wait until Dad gets home". Dad had a belt that you got if you were misbehaving. You only got what you deserved. I still think "Spare the rod and spoil the child' is a true saying.

I'm sure those of you that grew up in the 50's and 60's remember those times.

Who Knew - Jr Can Cook

Jr grew up in an unusual situation for the 50's. He lived in a male only house. He lived with his Grandfather, Father and Uncle Digger Dave. They all worked during the day so during the summer he was completely on his own. This causes a certain amount of independence for a 10 year old boy. I would think some of you younger people would say what an awful thing for a young boy to be on his own. Can you think of the dangers of that happening today. We grew up in a different age. There weren't people being a predator of children. We felt completely safe as we ran around the country. There were a lot of people who never locked there doors. It was a different age.

Let me start up by saying I loved baloney sandwiches. I took them to school every day. There were no cafetieres at the school. You either brought your lunch or you didn't have anything to eat. A baloney sandwich with mayo and an apple or orange was all I needed. If you got a cookie also it was nice. So one day when Jr and I were playing it got to be lunch time. I was up for it when Jr said "let's go in and have a baloney sandwich". We went into the house and Jr pulled out a frying pan. "What are you doing" I said. He told me "Don't worry you are going to enjoy this" as he proceeded to fry up the baloney. He taught me how to fry the baloney and then put it on bread with some mustard. I tried it and now my favorite hot sandwich was a fried baloney sandwich. It's hard to believe that anyone that young would know how to cook, but he grew up with all men so he knew more about those type things.

You see a fried baloney sandwich on a menu in a restaurant every now and then and it always reminds me of that first time. Thanks a lot, Jr.

The Shenango Pottery

The Shenango Pottery seal was the Indian making pottery over the name. The pottery made plates for The White House. We never saw any of those plates. They destroyed all of them before dumping.

Here is a bowl from the Shenango China.
Here is an example of a restaurant plate.

These are the type of plates we found quite often.
I'm sure most of you have heard of the Shenango Pottery. The pottery actually had a dump where they discarded the pottery that wasn't perfect. There was a mound of pottery that was 20 foot high and the size of a football field. It was downstream form the place we swam in the Shenango River. There were dump trucks that brought the discards from the pottery. We would explore that mound of pottery and find pottery that was in good shape and bring it back to the house. There was a fence to keep you out but we just crawled under it. It was like going on an exploration to climb the mound to see what we could find. We tried to hide from the dump truck drivers but I'm sure they knew we were there. All of our dishes were from the Shenango Pottery. We were able to collect quite an impressive amount of pottery from the discards. I'm sure if we had kept all we could have we would have a valuable collection at this time.

Winchie and I collected dishes one summer and gave it to the YMCA Camp. We got to spend three weeks at camp for free that summer. We then stayed on washing dishes and ended up staying for 5 weeks at the YMCA Camp. The camp had swimming, outdoor camping, baseball, canoeing and archery to name just a few activities. It was built next to a clean river and was a fun place to explore. We stayed in cabins and always had a campfire at night with plenty of singing and stories. Did you every eat a smashed up bee? I did it, but that was only in song. I was ready to go home after the five weeks. Sometimes there is too much of a good thing.

Some More Activities From My Youth

Shark Girl's comments reminded me I had only hit on a part of the places Jr and I had played. We did have the advantage of living on the outer edge of a medium size city. You see we had the city advantage of having a city playground with swings, sliding boards, ball field, see-saws and a play area with board games. This is where I was introduced to 'Shoots and Ladders'. A game similar to my business life where you can get ahead by climbing a ladder and fall behind because of a shoot that makes you go backward. Isn't life so much like that?

We also had woods where we played, a larger sandbank area that was higher then our baseball area and woods to play in and a lot of hills to climb. Another one of my best friends Winchie was a big boy although only a year older. He had a Buckeye Tree in his front yard and a Black Cherry Tree in his back yard. I loved both those trees and they were mature trees both at least 4 foot at there base. That Buckeye Tree was the reason I planted a Buckeye tree in our front yard. I still love the taste of Black Cherries. I was the one who ended up climbing the Black Cherry Tree for the fruit.
Jr house was about a mile from my house. I would either walk there or ride my bike. We ran all over the country. We would sleep out on the porch glider at night.

In the winter we would sled ride. The hills on the road made for a fun ride. We could slide two blocks off the hill before we reached the main highway. We loved the really icy snow because you could go a long ways. We had a pond out by Jr house that we used to go skating on once it froze. We also had a manmade skating rink a short walk away over a hill.

We really had a lot of free things to do when we were young.

My Best Friend Junior (Jr)

I think everyone has a BFF while growing up. Junior was my best friend while growing up in the 50's. We were the same age and must have naturally become best friends. Things weren't easy but we did have some special things going for us. As Jr often said we had things that a lot of people never had. We were rich in places to go and play.

We had our own swimming place. It was the Shenango River which was a Sharon Steel Mill river. I often wonder if the Prostate Cancer could be related to the river. The river was polluted for sure. We also fished the river and only caught bullhead catfish. We never ate the fish. There was a tree near the river with a branch which we had a rope tied onto. the bank near the tree was about 4 foot high. This gave us the ability to swing out onto the river and drop into the water. I wonder how much of that river water we swallowed.

There was an underground spring that always was running out of a pipe at about 60 degrees F all year round. This was great on a hot summer day.
We had our own football field. There was a machine shop that had an open field next to it. The field was always cut and made an excellent place to play. The field was 60 yards by 100 yards so was perfect for football. We played tackle football with no padding. I don't remember anyone getting hurt.

We had our own baseball field. It was a bowl where they had dug sand for someones use. The bowl was about 10 foot deep and rounded with a big sandbank on one side. The sandbank gave a perfect backstop and when we were younger. We hardly ever hit the ball out of the bowl. Jr's Uncle, Digger Dave, played with us sometimes. He was about 6 years older then we were. He was able to hit the ball out of the bowl. There were woods around the bowl so sometimes we had to work hard to find the ball if you hit it out. The loss of the ball sometimes ended the game.

We were rich in places to be a child. Jr and I were together all through the summer dats as we were growing up. What a wonderful time to look back to find how your life has developed.

Growing up in the Fifties

The 50's were a hard time in which to grow up. It wasn't the Great Depression but things were a bad with a lot of people out of work. We didn't have anywhere near the possessions that the children of today have. That wasn't even a possibility while I was growing up. There was many a time that food was as much importance as possessions. I think that was the start of a trend of a generation that wanted their children to get better then they had received.

No-one today can remember going to get in line to get food on which to live from a distribution center. Those staples included a tub of white lard that you mixed with a yellow coloring agent to make an oleo. You then spread it on the bread they gave you. You also would get eggs and milk.

You would try to get a job at a young age to have some money to spend on yourself.

I worked at a cemetery one summer cutting the grass. It wasn't a fun job especially when they had a funeral. The grave was dug with a back hoe but was filled in by hand after the people left the area. It wasn't as if you knew who was in the casket but you still knew someone had died. One time people were moving away and wanted to take a baby that had been buried years before. We dug up the wooden casket but since it had been made from wood and there were only black marks in the soil and nails from the casket. This is what we put into a casket and sent with the people to rebury.

I worked for my uncle painting houses for several summers. My Dad and uncle would put me up on a porch roof with a step ladder on the roof. I had to paint the side of the house above the roof. The sides of the house was painted with ladders with stand-offs that held expandable planks off the ladders on which to stand. There were no safety ropes or belts. Thank God no-one fell off the planks. It would have been an awful fall om your back that you may not of survived. I had to wait until they were done with the side of the house before I could get off the roof and move to a different area to paint. Sometimes the heat on the roof was almost unbearable. It was alright if you were in the shade.

My uncle gave me my first car. It was his old paint car, a 53 Chevy Bel-Air two door coupe. It had a 6 cylinder engine and a automatic transmission. It was painted a light green. It had paint on it from painting the houses and carrying the ladders on the roof. It had a big chromed grill that cleaned up beautifully and a lot of other chrome parts. The car's paint job was a little harder to clean but it ended up looking reasonable. This is a picture of a 53 Chevy.


Here is the side view of another 53.