blade310
Member
When I was ten or eleven,we had moved into this big two story house that was pretty old. There was a building set into the side of the hill behind the house. it had two floors.bottom floor you walked into from the yard. The upper floor you had to walk up along side of it to get into it. I believe there were sand stone steps but they were shifted out of place and not much use as steps any more. inside the wall of this upper floor I found what was left of a news paper dated 1892. this is my all time favorite house. I revisited that old house back in the mid 90s and it was still there.all over grown. People had pretty much gutted it. The cherry banister was gone. The frosted glass that had been in the double doors was gone. when you went in the front door,you opened it then there was a set of double doors with the stained glass in them. all of the inside trim around the doors and windows was gone. wasn't much of any value left.
When I got into metal detecting in 2010 I liked the Idea of going over there and trying to track down the owner. When we lived there when I was younger it was owned by a man named Baker. He was really old then.Or at least at my age I thought so.I didn't get around to going over there (4 hour drive). A few months ago I used a satellite map and found it. The house was gone.so was the building with two floors and the building off the back porch. This building off the porch was all sand stone blocks,big ones. inside there was a sand stone trough all along the back wall. and it seems there was a couple other things made of stone in there. I just can't picture what it all looked like. it was obviously for keeping things cool. It was nice and cool in there even on the hottest days. There was a hand pump between the portch and this building. That's where we got our water. I can still remember how cold it was. My dad wouldn't let us play around in that little building. and the only time we were allowed to use the pump is when mom needed water. we would dash into that cool little building now and then in the summer when it was hot. but we never messed with the pump. That was because we would have to go in the house to get enough water to prime it, then we had to prime it. That all took way to much time to risk it. I guess there had to be times when we did go for it because my dad was seldom around while we lived in this house. Any way, the satellite map showed that where the house and buildings were is now a small barn type building and it looked like a couple horses were there. There is a house across the dirt road out in the middle of what was once a very large field. I don't know if I could get permission to hunt that area or not. I hate to drive all the way over there and be refused.
Talk about getting side tracked
There was a dirt road in front of the house that climbed the hill to the right and went on for five or six miles. It interchanged with a few other dirt roads up in there and curved and wound its way till it came out just out side of a little town called Jewett. If you got on the road in front of the house and took a left, it went down and met a little small country road. About 30 yards before it met that road it crossed a little creek. The creek was a good two hundred yards from the house.
Behind the house was the base of a hill. on top of it were power lines.We found a big old Buick hood up there. Well if you walked up the hill from behind the house and came to the top,it sloped down to the right. It was fairly clear cause it was under the power lines. we found the hood at the base of that slope.My older brother Rick and my younger brother Mike and me worked and worked to get that hood up to the top of that hill fighting the snow and high weeds one winter. I'll bet it took us close to two hours to get that thing up there. we only made it because we got stubborn.It no longer mattered if we road it down the hill. It was going up that hill period. Now there was a barbed wire fence at the bottom of the hill. Rick and I new it. Mike didn't. It was lucky for Mike that the bottom two wires were broke and he ducked. That had to be the most enjoyable ride I have ever had in the snow. Rick and I jumped off in plenty of time to miss the fence,Mike just ducked. If he had not ducked it would have got him at about the middle of his face. That car hood may still be there where it stopped that day.
Sitting here remembering these things makes me realize how much I loved living there in that big old house. My dad was drinking more and more and seemed to be getting meaner each day so alot of my memory's from this time in my life are not good ones but at this point in my life I can look past those and remember the good times. our closest neighbor was a good twenty minute walk away. We had the creek,the fields,the woods,the hills and lots of energy. In front of the house on the other side of the dirt road was one street light. In the summer time it seemed that bugs would come from miles around to buzz around that light. The bugs brought the bats. Rick and I would toss rocks at them. I guess my younger brothers Mike and Don would be out there with us.We finally realized that if we threw a stone up at just the right time a bat would follow it down and come really low.We had always heard that bats would get tangled in your hair and bite you when you tried to get them out but we never had much hair so we didn't worry about that. We had one badminton (spelling) racket and one of us got the bright idea to swat at the bats when we got them to come low enough. we got a couple that way. it was fun and exciting,not that I am proud of it today. We used to fight over who got to use the racket. I think we worked it out by each of us getting so many tries.
I am trying to get to the reason behind this story.Its just not working out to good. since its getting late and I want to get out and do some detecting in the morning I am going to break this off here and pick it up again later. I was able to keep my back from going completely out on me. taking a week off from work then wearing a back brace all week when I went back to work. I am ready to try and dig a few targets. Thanks for readin' and I'll get to the rest of it just a little ways down the road.
When I got into metal detecting in 2010 I liked the Idea of going over there and trying to track down the owner. When we lived there when I was younger it was owned by a man named Baker. He was really old then.Or at least at my age I thought so.I didn't get around to going over there (4 hour drive). A few months ago I used a satellite map and found it. The house was gone.so was the building with two floors and the building off the back porch. This building off the porch was all sand stone blocks,big ones. inside there was a sand stone trough all along the back wall. and it seems there was a couple other things made of stone in there. I just can't picture what it all looked like. it was obviously for keeping things cool. It was nice and cool in there even on the hottest days. There was a hand pump between the portch and this building. That's where we got our water. I can still remember how cold it was. My dad wouldn't let us play around in that little building. and the only time we were allowed to use the pump is when mom needed water. we would dash into that cool little building now and then in the summer when it was hot. but we never messed with the pump. That was because we would have to go in the house to get enough water to prime it, then we had to prime it. That all took way to much time to risk it. I guess there had to be times when we did go for it because my dad was seldom around while we lived in this house. Any way, the satellite map showed that where the house and buildings were is now a small barn type building and it looked like a couple horses were there. There is a house across the dirt road out in the middle of what was once a very large field. I don't know if I could get permission to hunt that area or not. I hate to drive all the way over there and be refused.
Talk about getting side tracked
There was a dirt road in front of the house that climbed the hill to the right and went on for five or six miles. It interchanged with a few other dirt roads up in there and curved and wound its way till it came out just out side of a little town called Jewett. If you got on the road in front of the house and took a left, it went down and met a little small country road. About 30 yards before it met that road it crossed a little creek. The creek was a good two hundred yards from the house.Behind the house was the base of a hill. on top of it were power lines.We found a big old Buick hood up there. Well if you walked up the hill from behind the house and came to the top,it sloped down to the right. It was fairly clear cause it was under the power lines. we found the hood at the base of that slope.My older brother Rick and my younger brother Mike and me worked and worked to get that hood up to the top of that hill fighting the snow and high weeds one winter. I'll bet it took us close to two hours to get that thing up there. we only made it because we got stubborn.It no longer mattered if we road it down the hill. It was going up that hill period. Now there was a barbed wire fence at the bottom of the hill. Rick and I new it. Mike didn't. It was lucky for Mike that the bottom two wires were broke and he ducked. That had to be the most enjoyable ride I have ever had in the snow. Rick and I jumped off in plenty of time to miss the fence,Mike just ducked. If he had not ducked it would have got him at about the middle of his face. That car hood may still be there where it stopped that day.
Sitting here remembering these things makes me realize how much I loved living there in that big old house. My dad was drinking more and more and seemed to be getting meaner each day so alot of my memory's from this time in my life are not good ones but at this point in my life I can look past those and remember the good times. our closest neighbor was a good twenty minute walk away. We had the creek,the fields,the woods,the hills and lots of energy. In front of the house on the other side of the dirt road was one street light. In the summer time it seemed that bugs would come from miles around to buzz around that light. The bugs brought the bats. Rick and I would toss rocks at them. I guess my younger brothers Mike and Don would be out there with us.We finally realized that if we threw a stone up at just the right time a bat would follow it down and come really low.We had always heard that bats would get tangled in your hair and bite you when you tried to get them out but we never had much hair so we didn't worry about that. We had one badminton (spelling) racket and one of us got the bright idea to swat at the bats when we got them to come low enough. we got a couple that way. it was fun and exciting,not that I am proud of it today. We used to fight over who got to use the racket. I think we worked it out by each of us getting so many tries.
I am trying to get to the reason behind this story.Its just not working out to good. since its getting late and I want to get out and do some detecting in the morning I am going to break this off here and pick it up again later. I was able to keep my back from going completely out on me. taking a week off from work then wearing a back brace all week when I went back to work. I am ready to try and dig a few targets. Thanks for readin' and I'll get to the rest of it just a little ways down the road.
