Who remembers playing in the creek?

[mia]

[KMOD]

1. Oh yes, I grew up playing in the creek.

Having a creek is a must for my next home when we retire.

[OriginalGeek]

23. I hadn't thought of that

but if I have any say at all I'm adding that to my list of must haves too.


I wanna catch a crawdad again.

[KMOD]

33. There was a creek on the farm where I grew up.

So many wonderful memories.

My husband moved me to the suburbs when we were married. I'm out of my element here. I really need to get back to nature.

[OriginalGeek]

34. most of my growing up

was in the suburbs of Dallas but we were far enough away from the city that ranch land was never more than bike ride away (back in the days when a pack of 5th-graders were allowed to get on their bikes and ride around town lol) and as we got into high-school, and got our own cars and trucks we could venture further out. There were always lakes and creeks and rivers and piney woods to explore. (even in my little suburb we had to cross a creek to get to Jr High...we were supposed to go over the bridge but we never did. Too much fun to go under it)

Here in Florida I might be a little wary of any open public waterways but that doesn't mean I can't dream.

I've often told my wife that if the money were the same I would love to move back to Texas and I reckon in retirement the money would be the same.

I have a friend from high school that's doing some kind of permaculture thing on his land up in Montana. He always posting about his newly redesigned septic system and wood stove heating scheme and his happy natural raised goats. It's a little bit tooooo natury for me but he's happier'n shit. His goal is complete off-grid with wind/solar powering his main needs and farm living doing the rest. growing food and meat and stuff.

[KMOD]

36. lol, I am definately staying on the grid.

But that's awesome for your friend. It sounds like a place I would love to visit.

Sounds like you grew up with the best of both worlds. Very cool. I hope you do get to return to Texas in your retirement.

[pinboy3niner]

2. Just imagine the fun we had in SoCal swimming in 'The Wash'

Okay, there were public recreation areas like Hansen Dam. And plenty of public and private swimming pools. My dad would drive me and a bunch of neighborhood kids to a pay pool called Crystal Plunge.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

3. The Salt Creek near where I grew up was so polluted it was off limits.

My dad talked about canoeing and swimming in the creek when he was a kid. When I was a kid, there was an 800 number to call if you came in contact with the water.

The EPA started cleaning it up and my understanding is it's much better these days.

I remind the local freeper population of these facts if the EPA comes up in conversation.

[Downwinder]

4. Spring fed.

We invented cutoffs, cut the legs off and stitched them to the back. wore them out going down slide rock.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

5. Yes, Lubber Run and Four Mile Run creeks (VA)

But that was 60 years ago. I think the areas around the creeks are built up a little now, more "recreational" stuff.

[A HERETIC I AM]

6. I surely do

I lived in Maryland, 20 miles from the White House near Gaithersburg. The creek was 100 yards from the back door.

We used to build dams complete with spillways, catch crayfish and put them in little arenas that we constructed for epic fights to the death! We had a rope swing that went out over the creek.

It was too shallow to swim in though, even with a dam built but lots of great memories

[In_The_Wind]

7. It was fun 60 years ago.

[kentauros]

8. For everyday play, we had ditches.

For the once-a-year family play, we had Camp Warnecke on the Comal River in New Braunfels:

[denbot]

9. As a So Cal native, I'm a rare one that does.

There was an uncemented creek that ran through a pasture near Stimpson and Gale. I use to wade through the mud and moss to catch tadpoles and guppies to stock the pond of a patio waterfall my father and uncle built for our nearby home.

At that time Hacienda Heights was a rural outlier to what is now part of the greater Los Angeles mega city sprawl.

[kentauros]

10. Although there are some waterways called "creeks" in Houston,

they aren't very different from the bayous everywhere. Stagnant, only flow when it rains, and just like in Florida, gotta look out for alligators. They certainly have more of those critters, but we do have a few here and there.

Now imagine play as a kid when the first thing you have to do is check for alligators nearby

[geardaddy]

11. I do. In and around in summer. On the creek in winter

Minnehaha Creek in Minneapolis

[mia]

15. How beautiful!

I feel refreshed just looking at this creek.

[geardaddy]

17. And here's a picture of the Falls about a mile from where it empties into the Mississippi

In summer


In winter

[OriginalGeek]

24. that's pure awesome

[hunter]

12. I live a short walk from a creek.

It's got a good flow of water in the winter, and a bit of water now from irrigation drainage so it's brackish and no doubt full of pesticides. It dries up entirely in August and until the first rains.

There are also a lot of homeless people living down there.

[malthaussen]

13. I also remember how polluted that creek was...

... it's frankly amazing I didn't dissolve from all the corrosive crap in it.

-- Mal

[yellowdogintexas]

39. we had pig poop pollution

and lots of algea in one creek.

All of the ponds had pesticides and fertilizers and weed killer in them I am certain; runoff from the crops. We did not care. Most of the farmland is red clay, so our swim stuff got terrible stains

[RobinA]

14. Me!

Me, my sister, and our two cousins. Caught crayfish, built dams and forts, threw rocks to see who could make the biggest splash, panned for gold (in PA), built teepees and pretended we were Indians hunting and gathering (we are white, so today this would probably be frowned upon, but we had a good time).

It was fun times. Back when summer seemed like it would last forever. I miss that feeling.

[progressoid]

16. The bigger question is, do you pronounce it 'creek' or 'crik'?

[redwitch]

20. We called it a crik I think.

These days I pronounce it creek, not sure when or why I made the switch in pronunciation.

[progressoid]

21. Well, creek is much more sophisticated.

[RobinA]

41. Crik

I don't know when we changed to creek, but we did. I think the thing was that my Grandfather's flowing water was the crik and then when we got one of our own it was a creek.

[redwitch]

18. Sitting on the bridge with our sandaled feet dangling over.

Me and best friend in elementary school, eating cookies and watching the dragonflies and minnows. Such a wonderful memory, thanks for reminding me!

[tk2kewl]

19. In queens we didn't have a creek

we played in the "gully"

[Sanity Claws]

26. I grew up in Queens too

and we played in rain puddles.

(I can just see the younger version of myself jumping in one and splashing everyone around me. Maybe you too.)

[tk2kewl]

28. i actually lived just over the border in nassau, but we had no creeks there either

my grandfather lived in cambria heights... he used to take us to the "gully" which was actually just a drainage ditch for the dross island parkway

[Sanity Claws]

29. Dross Island Parkway

Is that an editorial comment or a typo for the Cross Island?

[tk2kewl]

30. typo

[femmocrat]

22. We did!

Lots of cricks in the mountains of western PA.

[closeupready]

25. We had one on my grandparents' farm - they'd warn us of copperheads;

and when I got older, I'd go down there on my own, and I'd see nests of God knows what - big open holes - foxes? Raccoons? What kind of animal burrows near creek beds?

[yellowdogintexas]

38. beavers. muskrats most likely. nt

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

27. Isn't that a crick?

And yes, we played in one. Nothing better on a hot day.

[3catwoman3]

31. Sliding down small waterfalls...

..into small deep pools at Letchworth state park in western upstate NY is a very fond memory from 50+ years ago,

[madamesilverspurs]

32. Yes, indeed!

Great place for learning about tadpoles while splashing around. The boys raced their bicycles up and down the hill, the girls played jump rope and jacks. In the winter, the bike path became a sled run, and the boys packed the snow into a ramp at the bottom that enabled the more daring to jump their sleds over the frozen creek. That place was an automatic stopping-off spot on the walk home from school, we all played there.

Sixty years later we were in the neighborhood and drove by, delighted by the sign proclaiming the site as a park, honoring the children who had originally chosen it as a favorite playground. As one of those "children", I could not be more pleased.

[Aristus]

35. And hunting for crawdads...

[yellowdogintexas]

37. oh yes!! We swam in every creek we could convince someone to drive us to.

Or pond.

Creeks and streams are abundant where I grew up. Some cleaner than others. There was a rock quarry near by which held water and was a popular swimming hole; we had Fowler's creek, Schleye which was a stream merger with a nice blue hole, The Blue Hole in another part of the county. There were many others, I am certain.

My uncle had a creek on his farm which rose out of the ground into a rock pool then headed over to meet another stream. It went back underground and resurfaced downstream. We never swam in it but it was a cool spot we could walk to and crawl under the bushes and stick our feet in the water. COLD!

My granddaddy had some land which was lived on and farmed by a couple of brothers. The creek there had to be forded in his WWII Army Surplus opentop jeep with metal bench seats in the back (HOT) which was hilarious fun! It was not a good wading stream but on the actual property where the second farmhouse was, the creek had taken on a couple of branches and was chin deep about 500 feet from the house. I was so damn jealous of those kids, having an actual creek in their own yard. Every day after the farm work was done, they all jumped into their swim stuff and hit the creek.

That creek served as the irrigation source when needed.

Hot fun in the summertime in the country!!!

[Laffy Kat]

40. We would spend hours playing in the spillways.

I'd tag along with my big sis. There were miles and miles of the concrete spillways, loads of tunnels and hiding places. We'd be away from home until we got hungry or thirsty. Mom never seemed to worry about where we were or what we were up to. Man, have things changed. I would NEVER let my boys do that.