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I'd like to add
my memories of the RockHouse. Yes, I echo the homemade
wagons already spoken about, they were a lot of fun.
We used to ride them down the hills near the RockHouse.
If I just had a pair of those old iron wheels and a good
bobbin I bet I could make a good replica of what we built back
in the 40's. But no doubt, the RockHouse still
stands. To us back then it seemed as a huge outcropping
of rock boulders. If you walked along the river there
were three ways to get past the RockHouse. One, you
could get in the river and go around. Two, you
could climb the hill and go over the house and back down the
hill on the other side. Or three, there was a
small opening between the rocks and about half way up
you could crawl through to get to the other side.
When taking the third route, I often thought of Tom Sawyer and
Huck Finn and their adventures into that cave.
On the upper side of the RockHouse there was a flat area
between the river and the hillside and on the edge of the
river we sometimes could find an arrowhead if we got lucky.
Surely the Indians must have had some activities there long
ago. Also on the upper side was a smooth body of water
that we referred to as the "first eddy water".
There was a big round rock near the bank of the river that we
used to dive from and go swimming. We called that rock
"Turtle Rock" because it looked like a giant
turtle's back sticking out of the water.
Below the RockHouse was another smooth body of water we called
"Second Eddy". It was there that one of
the church's used to hold Sunday baptisms. It was
a good place for that because the shore was sand and gradually
went out into the river. I'm pretty sure Prentis'
father baptized members of his church there. I remember
going and watching when I was a youngster. It was
there where some large trees grew over the water and we had a
rope swing that we could swing out over the water and drop
with a big splash.
In those days there was a well worn path alongside the river,
we were always on the lookout for snakes. You
could almost count on seeing someone along the path fishing on
any day. I sure would like to take a stroll along
that path again today but I have no idea if the path is clear
enough. But as a thought, it sure would make
a nice city park, walking or jogging trail in today's
"green conscious" society.
Sent in by Jerry Mills. Thanks Jerry |
