These are from Conneaut Creek.
I hated fishing. I always have. To me its just boring. I don't like fish that looks back at me either. I was not in the boat with them day. I think Ray took these.
I took that one before. That was the bridge thing we had to get the boat under. You had to watch the tide on that one because it emptied into Lake Erie.
A more shallow part of Conneaut Creek. This was about a half mile or so from our house. Tommy and Sue and I went down here a lot. Sometimes Diane and her kids came too. It wasn't more than a foot here maybe a foot and a half in some places. I could sit down and let the cool water soothe my cares away.
That's the main highway you see in the background but there is another bridge just this side of it hidden by all the greenery in this photo. Its on a road that is closed to most traffic but we could still drive down here and park just off the road.
Sometimes we just hiked down in here. Then we'd hike for miles in the creek bed.
I used to take a stick and poke around in the loose gravel under the old bridge. I found a lot of ancient marbles in there and sometimes a real old glass bottle that hadn't gotten broken. We found fossils all over here. I think I still have one. I'll see if I can find it and scan it in.
Once we all went fishing. It was a really hot day but I went along to keep track of Tommy while they fished. It was miles father or "deeper" in this photo. We had to climb across a rail road trestle with no place to go if a train came along. It was really scary. On the opposite side we had to find our way around sharp rocks to reach the water.
It was just too much on me. I wanted to go home. Tom said he'd take care of Tommy so I left him with them and started hiking in the water where it was cooler and still pretty shallow back to where this photo was taken.
I was got to that bridge and climbed up to the road, hiking up the highway to home. As I got near the house I was feeling really bad. Anne was my neighbor then. She was a nice middle-aged lady. She came out of her house and took my arm and asked me if I was all right.
I don't know how it happened but I fainted. I don't think I ever fainted before in my entire life or since either. She hustled me into the car and took me down to Brown Memorial. God, I hated that place. They checked me out and had me sit in the hallway with a fan blowing cool air on me. The doc said they'd had a lot of heatstroke patients that day. After reminding me what a fool I was he left me there in the hall to cool more before letting Anne take me home.
I went down in here on my own one day while Tommy was in school. I was fossil hunting. I had a bucket for my "finds." I was wearing plain old sneakers and walking through the creek bed. I never saw it but I felt it. I looked down to see a sharp point of glass coming out of the top of my sneaker.
I had no idea what to do. There was no one around to rescue me. I had to save myself. I carefully, lifted my foot straight up and the glass sucked back out of my foot thankfully.
At first there was a lot of blood but then I figured I still had to get out of the water and back up the hill to home. I walked a few more feet but more carefully this time. I looked before I put my foot down.
I got to the bridge and climbed out and up it to the road. I still had a steep hill to climb with no traffic to hopefully give me a lift. I knew I had to do it. Nobody knew I was there. There would be no rescue. Even if he had known, he would just have thought I was fine, I could take care of myself and you know what? I was fine. I did take care of myself.
I got to the main road and only a half block left. Blood had squished out with every step. He was there when I went in. I told him what happened. I said I was afraid of taking my shoe off but I was darn well not going to pay another visit to Brown Memorial.
He got another bucket, a clean one, half filled it with cool water and poured almost a whole bottle of betadine in it. He told me it was going to hurt so I shut my eyes like that was going to help while he pulled my sneaker off.
Most of the bleeding had stopped. So I soaked my foot for about an hour in that. Then he dumbed that and filled it again and put a bag of Epsom salts in it and I soaked some more.
He got Tommy at school and bought the dreaded cold cuts and cheese for dinner. It was no wonder I gained weight with all that fatty, salty stuff around. He went heavy on sweets too.
Tommy enjoyed watching his father play doctor and his father enjoyed it too. I hobbled around a day or two but I was lucky and didn't need a BM visit.