Rain has been keeping our basement sump pump in overdrive the past few days. I'm not too keen on all this overly wet weather now that I'm an old fogey, but I used to relish sloshing around the neighborhood after a good "toad strangler"--other than the fact that I had to wear my older brother's hand-me-down galoshes, brown Hoplaong Cassiday clodhoppers, rather than the cutesy white, pink, or yellow numbers that most girls wore.
There were several favorite post-deluge venues around town, and one of them was the practice football field right across the street from my house, that is until a school was built on the land and ruined all our fun. This field had a low spot that typically filled up after a good rain. It was a great place to mingle with croaking frogs, turtles, and crawdads. There were even a few times the water was so deep that inner tubes were required.
Probably the best-known water spot in town, however, was Button Creek. I'm not exactly sure where it started, but I do recall that there were sidewalk bridges running across it from 12th to 4th streets. After a big rain, everyone had to check the creek to see how high the water was, as compared to previous downpours. We'd toss something into the rushing stream, like a small tree branch or a rubber ball, then race like lightning to the next block's bridge, hoping to get there first.
Even in dry seasons, Button Creek was a playground. We'd jump in at 12th Street and then follow the creek bed to 4th, walking underneath the streets in the dark, imagining what danger lay ahead. This must have been what it was like for the great navigators of the world, I was certain. We also used the creek as a place to hide secret messages and to crouch down in as we spied on the "holy rollers" inside an adjacent church. Some of my guy pals once stashed their girlie magazines inside a stone crevice of the creek until a cranky old lady/neighbor discovered their cache and ratted to a parent. Bummer.
I hope the current crop of kids in Fredonia have found their own creative uses for Button Creek like my friends and I did once upon a time. If they haven't, they are missing out on one of life's little treasures.
2 comments:
Loved this one!! I liked the place near Ricky's. What is the name of the creek that runs out through the city park? I used to have to check out the water levels on the shelter house every time it rained a lot. Remember when the fish pond across the street from that, still in the city park, had cat fish in it--BIG ones!!? We've had less than six inches of precip in Reno in the past year!! I do enjoy the wetlands at the end of our street and the huge herons and sandpipers that land there. We also have pet mallards and swans at least a portion of the year. so at least there are waterfowl. The creek in Clayton, Ca. where we used to live, was always crawling with baby rattlesnakes so that was taboo. We had a great creek behind our house in Ct.! And it is prounounced "crick" to all you non-Kansans!
Button Creek dumps into thre west city park, but so does some other, larger creek from the north, and I can't recall the name. The fish pond was filled in many years ago---bummer.
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