The Ditch

The ditch was a lot more fun to play in when I lived in My Old House than it is now. In the late 1970s I would play for hours on end with the neighborhood kids on its banks. Actually, I played there on into the mid 80s with my middle school buddies. There were trails that stretched from the Hartman Street bridge, almost all the way out to the Torture Trails at the Miriam Street bridge. Some memories:

• falling in
  
• getting leaches
• slipping on mossy rocks
• spitting in it from the bike bridge
• climbing inside the drainage pipe under the bike bridge (some kids claimed to walk all the way to the Middle School (three blocks) inside that pipe. I never ventured very far. The pipe is grated off today.
  
• finding Paradise by the Little League diamond. It was sort of a pretty spot.
• golf ball hunting
• crossing Dead Man's Pass
  
• trying to raft down it
• checking the water level after a heavy rain
• being really disappointed when they cut all the trees down
• almost (accidentally) touching a really big spider under some bark

As seen from the roof of My Old House, Berlin
Court Ditch was wooded back then.

A couple of years ago one of the neighbor ladies from Hartman Knoll (who still lives there) was telling me about the time I scared her so much because she looked out and saw me on the roof. She said she came running over to tell my mom. I bet my mom acted like she was all concerned too, but actually already knew I was up there. It just might have been the day I took this picture that the neighbor lady was talking about.