Nostalgia Lane (Part 3)

01/23/07

Looking back, I wonder where all the time goes. Was it just yesterday that I was running all over the hillsides going clear to the top where there was a stone quary of mounds of large flagstones. I would then sit on the edge of the hillside amongst the trees and look over the town below and marvel at how the people playing ball in the ball field or walking to the country store looked like ants to me.I wondered how the river below could keep flowing day after day, year after year on its way merging with the other rivers on their way to Pittsburgh. How does the water keep coming from the streams high up in it's mountain beginnings? This river called the Youghiogheny flows north to Pittsburgh and is so crystal clear that in the summertime one can see the rocks sitting on the bottom, and fish swimming lazily in it. Some of the rocks are as large as half a room. They all had been named by those who swam before me. There was a "frog rock" a "big rock" "red rock" "snake rock" and "yellow rock!" My mother and father tried to keep me out of the river when I was growing up. My day began and ended with swimming in our river.Nowadays it is stocked with fish and fishermen use it and lose hooks in it which was not done when I was a child. Not as much swimming is done near our home as before.I haven't climbed these hills for years and looked out over the town. Somehow the hills look much larger to begin climbing today than when I was a child!