|
Boyhood Adventures Letterboxes
1 & 2
*I'll be very happy to give any of these boxes back to their
original owners upon request. I have only adopted these
boxes for upkeep and historical means and do not count them among my
planted boxes.
Wisconsin
Letterboxes of Antiquity Homepage
Dragon's Homepage
**Box originally placed by Birkiebob --
adopted for caretaking by The Dragon 4/05**
| Placed by: BirkieBob |
|
| Placement date: Dec 26, 2001 |
|
| State: Wisconsin |
|
| County: Milwaukee |
|
| Nearest city: Fox
Point |
| Number of boxes: 2 |
Clues
Boyhood Adventures Letterbox #1
Indian Creek, Fox Point, Wisconsin
Difficulty: Clues-Easy, Terrain-Easy
Placed by: Birkie Bob 26 December, 2001 (LbNA post #9312-13)
When I was growing up in Fox Point, Indian Creek was a place of
wonder and adventure. It was composed of fields of tall grass
and trees. The best part was The Creek, a deep drainage ditch
with mud bottom, tall grass and weeds along the sides and a huge
assortment of living beings from all neighborhoods of the animal
kingdom. It was a magical place to spend summer days with
friends especially my buddy, Kimmy. We could take a sack lunch
and lurk in our tree fort spying on our wild kingdom. There were
tadpoles, small fish and turtles in the creek. Muskrats,
squirrels, rabbits, crows, red wing black birds and dragonflies
were also abundant. Best of all there were frogs to catch. It
was wild enough and expansive enough to provide a generation of
children with daily adventures and discoveries about the world
that would become theirs and about the human spirit that was
growing within
each of them.
Sometime after those golden years of boyhood Indian Creek got
"civilized."
The tall wild grasses have been replaced with perfectly groomed
suburban lawn grass. The fields have been infested with tennis
courts, a ball field, a now-abandoned skating rink and a pre-fab
playground set. The largest part of the wild fields have been
gouged and covered
with ostentatious multi-thousand-square-foot "Yuppie
containers." People have the right to purchase property and to
use it as they see fit, but this former boy still feels a little
bit sad to see the change. Most of the wild trees have been
sacrificed on the altar of civilization and replaced with
nursery-raised perfectly unremarkable units. The creek now has a
concrete bottom and supports no form of life. No one's precious
little darling is in danger of smelling creek mud or having wild
grass scratch their legs while running through on daily missions
fueled by infinite imagination. There are no smelly animals to
offend the delicate sensibilities of the current two legged
inhabitants if they should find the courage to venture out of
their
containers.
It's difficult to believe that the perfectly formed and
installed playground equipment can furnish the stimulation
required for the personal growth of the current young ones of
that area. In fact the place has become so boring that one
rarely sees anyone there. This letterbox is the first in a
series to commemorate growing up with adventures, fears, wonder
and laughter shared with childhood pals. Indian Creek was a
place from which each day a generation of children came home for
supper very much dirtier and a little bit richer than they had
left.
Fox Point is a village to the north of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. To
reach Indian Creek exit Interstate 43 at the Brown Deer Road
exit. Proceed east on Brown Deer Road and turn south at the
first traffic light, Port Washington Road. Travel approximately
half a mile south to Dean Road where there is another traffic
light. Turn to the East on Dean Road. You'll go down a slight
hill and across a bridge over the remains of Indian Creek.
You'll see the ball field and the parking lot on your right.
Leave your car in the lot and proceed on foot along the bank of
the Creek with Dean Road behind you. You'll pass the tennis
courts and the perfectly safe and boring playground. Continue
along the bank to the footbridge. Stop for a minute and look
across the skating rink at the biggest mountain in our world and
imagine being a child headed down on a Flexible Flier for the
first time, maybe scared and maybe hearing Dad's encouraging
words.
On your left side of the sledding hill you'll see a few
surviving trees. The largest one was home to our tree fort. When
I was old enough to go to "The Creek" alone, it had a sign
proclaiming it to be the rightful property of Jerry. I never met
him, but he was part of the mystery of our childhood.
Continue along the creek bank to the "woods." As you continue
through the woods on the stone path, make a note of the large
grey rock on your left near the beginning. Enjoy your trek
through these woods, and at the end of the path, count the
number of white posts then subtract the number of diamond-shaped
red signs: _____
To get your bearing, add this number to 100: _____
To get your paces, reverse the two digits and double that
number: _____
Now go back to the large grey rock. Stand on top of it, take
your bearing and, as best as you can, walk your paces. You
should come to a path heading east through another part of the
"woods". You'll know that you're on the correct path if you come
upon a dirt bike jump ramp fairly quickly. Continue on the path
along the ridge through the woods to a cleared wood chip area.
Continue along the ridge through the chips to a manhole (what's
that doing here?). To your left is a three-trunked tree.
Behind the tree is a broken fallen trunk with another log next
to it. The box is under this log. (Be aware that
people can see you from either side, so be discrete.)
Stamp in and pause to think of all the experiences involved in a
child's becoming an adult. Listen for the thousands of
children's voices still caught in the wind. Those voices are now
ringing across a world that is much bigger. Hopefully they still
laugh and still express true wonder at the beauty of life.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Boyhood Adventures Letterbox #2
Doctor's Park, Fox Point, Wisconsin
Placed 26 December, 2001 by Birkie Bob
BirkieBob@ATT.net
Difficulty: Clues-moderate, Terrain-moderate
As children grow older their horizons expand and their
adventures include new places and greater distances. Fox Point's
Doctor's Park was slightly further from home than Indian Creek,
but at the time it seemed like a much greater trip. Those
adventures began when we thought that we were accomplished bike
riders and could negotiate village streets.
Doctor's Park is on the shore of Lake Michigan. It was our first
swimming hole. That water was too cold for any but the most
adventurous. The spectacle of "sensible" adults shunning the
water for the comforts of the beach was all the encouragement we
needed to throw ourselves in and swim as far as we could for as
long as we could stand the cold and then a bit longer. The
grumpy lifeguards were required to row their boats out to follow
the few who would dare to enter that water. We delighted in
swimming all the way out to the floats forcing those surly "bay
watchers" to follow us around. After several cycles between the
floats and the sand to recover, we could explore the several
ravines in the park. In later years Doctor's Park has continued
to be a place for a good trail run and hill workout. Its
secluded spots overlooking the lake remain a valuable place for
contemplation of the complexities of adult existence.
The park was a gift of Doctor Joseph Schneider, "eminent
physician, true humanitarian and ardent lover of nature.
Dedicated by him 'to my fellow citizens for recreation purposes.
It's natural beauty to be preserved and bird life to be
fostered.'" The gift was accepted by the
Milwaukee common council on July 11, 1928.
Fox Point is a village to the north of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. To
reach Doctor's Park exit Interstate 43 at the Brown Deer Road
exit. Proceed east on Brown Deer Road and turn south at the
first traffic light, Port Washington Road. Travel approximately
half a mile south to Dean Road where there is another traffic
light. Turn to the East on Dean Road. You'll go down a slight
hill and across a bridge over the remains of Indian Creek and
you'll be at the site of Boyhood Adventures Number 1.
To reach Boyhood Adventures Number 2 from Number 1 continue east
on Dean Road for approximately one mile. Your trip will take you
across Regent Road, Santa Monica Boulevard, and rail road
tracks. Your next major road crossing will be Lake Drive.
Continue east until the road bends sharply to the right.
Straight ahead you'll see Fox Point's Stonehenge standing in
Doctor's Park. The parking lot will be to your left. Take the
paved foot path leaving the northeast area of the parking lot.
The path will widen out and take you down one of the many
ravines. Take a right where the path intersects a paved road.
As a boy biking down that paved road seemed to be very bold. The
"Walk your bike" notice painted on the road surface was just a
yellow blur at that speed, so we concluded that it was ok to
bike as long as we were going fast enough.
My first such bicycle decent ended at the bottom of the hill
where the road makes a right angle turn to the right. In many
ways it was and still is one of my most memorable exposures to
the laws of physics. After the front wheel was acted upon by the
curb, Newton's third law of motion dictated that my body should
continue in motion straight ahead until acted upon by an impact
with the grassy knoll (all before Newton's laws or grassy knolls
had any special meaning to me).
Follow my path of empirical knowledge to the grassy knoll. Walk
north along the tree line on the west side of the knoll. At the
north-west corner of the grass you'll find a little foot path
that will take you to a barbed wire and cyclone fence. Travel
along the fence to the West. In a very short distance you'll
find a natural drainage gully coming down the hill. Being
careful of your footing follow that gully up hill about two
thirds of the way to the top. You'll come to a fallen tree
perpendicular to the gully. Look to the left and find the fallen
tree that's parallel to the gully lying along a bearing of 110
degrees. Boyhood Adventures Number Two is in a crevase on the
top side of that tree about midway along its length. You'll find
it under a pile of wood.
After stamping up please replace the box carefully to protect it
from the delinquents that frequent the area (as the many beer
cans and melted original stamp give evidence to). You can
reverse your course to leave the park or continue uphill and
enjoy a short hike in those woods. That area is fairly wild, so
please watch your footing. We might be young in spirit, but none
of us is as young in limb as we used to be.
This box will be visited infrequently, so an email about its
condition and your visit will be very much appreciated. |
|
