Right after starting school the four of us (Joey Vitosky, Phillip Casey, Mitchel Roberts & myself) usually working in twos we were pretty much obsessed with digging caves
Spending hours and hours after school to build our dirt homes away from home!
I don’t know what else to call them but caves. When we were digging them we were building comfort, protection, our home away from home, our secret place !
Some very simple somewhere else shaped in a little more elaborate I remember one was even T-shaped. Over the years I would say two or three years when we were approaching our teens or in them we love to dig caves! They were built more in line with a a storm or root celler except much smaller.
Usually about 6 to 8 foot long and wide enough that two of us could lay down in it side-by-side. The T shaped ones afforded us two room rooms. Not as wide not as long!
They were dug almost perfectly! The sides of our kids cave was smooth and well chiseled just as the floor was while the roof was made out of sticks and Liam’s lay down to span the width of the ditch oops I meant ‘teen cave’. Usually one of us boys had more to do with a cave then the others did so we would call it Phillips cave or Joy or Mitchel’s or Rocky’s.
Joie’s was always the most elaborate and well built and inventive ditch turned into a hideaway!
Our favorite place was a bend in the creek where the running water dug out some cliffs about 4 foot to 6 foot high with loose dirt that was easy to dig in.
Joy usually supplied the tools, the design you might say the genius of our dirt hideaways! The rest of us we’re perfectly content just to be a part of the adventure.
Looking back they were like longer shallow Graves but we didn’t see him as such we seen them as hideaways.
Our place that no one else knew about and would most likely never find! No roads nearby just a creek and not even a trail until we wore one in as we built them I enjoyed crawling in them, laying in them, laughing at them telling stories in them and planning the next one. Fun times for sure!
To lay on we would sometimes put down straw and then toss an old blanket on top of that to lay. Couple of times we even spent the night in them but truth be told the night in a grave like ditch we called our cave home was kind of scary. Critters abounded. We would often notice that a coon or woof or a cow had enjoyed the coolness of the cave!
obviously our homes smelled like dirt and we loved it. Freshly dug dirt and lives and straw had a unique young boy smell.
they would last most of the summer some only a few weeks if it rained! Obviously it could withstand any kind of wind and that’s really what we enjoyed the most as when the wind was really blowing and it was tornado season we felt safe and secure in our dirt enclaves.
The creek did not run year-round in the summer it would form pools water that was fun to walk and play in but not deep enough to swim in but that was OK it was what it was. The smell of the creek made it our world unique Cove with a great view – the creek.
Joey and I even added a hitching rail or hitching post for our horses. Mitchel and Phillip didn’t have a horse Joy had two and I had Rusty!
once we put the poorly crafted but sufficient to keep the sun out roof on, it got kind of dark inside. We tried various things to make it more Homie like a kerosene lamp or a candle but obviously they were hard to crawl around or sleep next to plus such items often took up valuable space needed for crawling and sleeping.
and now the rest of the story
We loved the water as much as we loved the dirt. In one way or another we lived much of our life in both
When it comes to water we would build these elaborate rafts. They were genius in design but seldom floated well enough to sit on or even lay on & stay dry.
Most of the ponds we tried to build a raft on where we’re in the trees but the trick was to use dry wood as dry as possible and as light as possible. When we was able to achieve that believe it or not the top of the raft was above water….
The most successful ones placed on top cream cans or drums. We even tried buckets with lids but they weren’t near as good as the cream cans or drums!
We just wanted something to float out in the middle of the pond on so we could dive off and swim to the bank to ride horses or fish .
We seldom achieved that but it was so fun trying! A few rafts would become nothing more than something to put our dry clothes on top of! Dry for a while anyway.
The pond between our house and Mitchel’s house was the best one. A tree lined pawn with a spillway for building and then loading a raft. And damn that provided a deep spot to dive into or fish in.
I can’t remember exactly how but somehow we found a cable (which was better than a rope because a rope would stretch it wasn’t a strong) that would go from the top of one tree close to Mitchel’s house to the bottom of another tree close to my house.
We ran the cable through a grooved pulley wheel that had a handle attached to it that would allow us to zoom down that cable and drop screaming and laughing into the water. What a thrill! On a Farm a grooved pulley wheel was not hard to find, we used them to draw water and manually move larger objects around.
The first one we put up didn’t even last one summer because it was made out of rope but the second one after we somehow got hold of a long enough cable to use it lasted several years and all of us young and older made good use of it!
We nailed boards on the side of the tree so we can climb up to the cable pulley and grab a hold of it and off we would go! I don’t know how we succeeded but by far the majority of us made it hanging on long enough to let go over water. Was so exciting and dangerous and fun and it was our water wonderland. Made by us and used by us! Unique for its time in so many ways!
from the high side of the cable to the low side of the cable you always hit water. The tree the cable was tied to at the top was so close to the pond even if you fell right away from the tree if you pushed away a little you would probably hit water but for sure on the low you’re gonna hit water. You might say those two trees of that pawn was a gift that just kept giving most of my youth!
Quick sidenote. By far the majority of the time we did not have adult supervision for any of these endeavors. We thought them up we built them and we played on them or in them! Our parents knew about them but I can’t ever remember a one of them visiting our dugout homes however they would come and watch us play at the pond and would often join us…
I don’t remember how but somehow we failed the time to do all of that and not get in trouble. I can’t remember our parents ever quizzing us about where we were at or wondering if we were safe – we were kids and I guess to some degree we were feral kids. Wild and free of wonder without worry and most usually without negative consequences from our parents or others.
We always felt safe but played with abandonment reaching for one thrill or adventure after another.
I wonder if there are places or kids are able to enjoy each such things anymore… probably not cause it takes a particular mindset from the parents! They gotta feel like you’re OK and they know you’ll be home in time to do the chores… it was a good life!
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