Growing up on a farm had some real advantages. We had a pond down the drive lane from our house that was not very deep but one we were not allowed to swim in. When I got older I found out why I didn't get to swim in it, in the fact that it was just run off water from the fields above it. Not something one should be swimming in. We were however allowed to wade along the edges of it. I remember one late spring Carol, Teri and I spent one whole day catching pollywogs in that pond. We would tote them up to the house and put them in a big galvanized wash tub. We had every intention of watching all of them change into frogs. Now mind you they were in every stage of changing already. Some had one leg, some two, and so on and so on. When Mom came out of the house to check on our play that put a halt to our up close and personal relationship with the pollywogs. We had to tote them all back to that pond.
There was a raft like things sitting near the pond. I think some of the boys that lived over in the next section used it on the pond. Their Dad owned the land we lived on and farmed. I don't remember them ever being on the raft but the reason that it is in my memory bank because it was a great place to stand on, to get away from the water snakes that also liked the pond. I hate snakes to this day. Not because they slither or are ugly or anything like that but because they always had a way of sneaking up on a person when they least expected it.
One place we could swim in was the canal. We could only go if Dad or Mom were with us and then only in certain places. The water moves pretty fast through in most places but some were very slow. A very good place to cool off.
Another body of water that we all liked to play in and this time it includes Connie and Lucy was the Perrine Coolie. It was located down the hay field from our house out on what was called the truck route north of Twin Falls. The coolie was a wonderful cool and shady place to play. Sometimes Mom would let us take a lunch and a blanket to have a picnic. We always tried to walk on the rocks because Mom always told us their were leaches in the water. I to this day can not tell you if it were true but it did the trick in keeping us out of the water. We had the occasional slip of the foot off a rock that netted us a wet shoe. That was one place we never went bare footed. We could walk the length of the coolie from the road clear to the canyon rim. Seemed like a long way at the time but it was not as far as I remember as a kid. There were some downed tress and lots of rocks to climb and play on. I loved playing there as did all us kids.
When we moved into town. We lived not to far from the Rock Creek Canyon. That was a place we were not ever suppose to go. Welllllll you know as well as I do when you are told absolutely not to go there. It was like an open invitation to explore. It is not a deep canyon like the Snake River Canyon but more like a wide ravine filled with stinging nettle, bull thistle, sour dock, and many other perils to ourselves. We only chanced going down in there when we were at home alone. Mom worked and Dad drove truck so we took care of ourselves much of the time. I was in Jr. High them so leading Connie, Lucy and Teri into trouble was my speciality but keeping us from getting caught was not to awfully hard. We never made it to the water in that canyon just too many very tall and unforgiving weeds to deal with. It was a fun climb down in there to say the least.
I guess you could say after that we got sophisticated and started using a public pool. Now what fun was that? Also took swimming lessons after that to. Keeping cool no matter where it was ranked number one when it was the hot dog days of summer. I miss them days!!!!!!!
I never got lessons, spent my time bobbing in the pool or jumping in and scraping my tooth. You not only WERE good at leading us into trouble but ARE good! hahahahahahaha!
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