Living in Roslyn

Slag Piles

Starting off with the slag piles.. For
those who don't know... slag piles is
left over from taking the coal from
the earth. They are huge hills.
My kids called the one behind the
house the HONDA HILL because
the local kids rode their Honda's
there.

First the big ones were taken over
by motorcycle club from Seattle.
This was mom and pop and kids
motorcycle club. There would be up
to 100 families there on holiday weekends.
So we never worked on weekends.

Although we did have the garbage run
for a while for them. We had an
International 2 ton dump truck that we
used in our line of work. My husband
and one of the head club members, Jack
use to go from camp ground area to
camp ground area, and pick up the garbage
cans at the end of the weekend about 3 pm.
They were complaining about how much
work it was. So one time, the club member's
wife, Laura and I decided to go around.
We never had to get out of the truck.
The guys at the camp grounds would
all run and get the can and throw the
garbage in the truck for us. We use to
play the 8 track tapes over the loud
speaker (Simon and Garfunkul being
one of the favorites)on the front of the
truck. And they would have it all ready.
Of course we were dressed in shorts and
halter tops, so that might have had something
to do with it. No, it wasn't that type of
thing, it was a family campground, remember.

The slag piles behind the house were the
love of my kids. They would spend all kinds
of time there. I could see them easily, as I
went along and did my house work.
The winters were great as they sled down
the piles . These piles where as tall as a 2
story house or more. And huge around.

In the summer they would play with their
Tonka toys there.
We would make runs to the dump, which
was the good old times where you took
your truck full of garbage and return with
almost, if not more than what you took with
you. You know the saying one man's treasure etc
.
Well, one trip produced a go-cart type
thing. It was a home made deal. The boys
latched on to that in a hurry. And
scurried around the place looking for
wheels. Loaded up on the truck and home.
It took them two days to get it all fixed up.

Which was amazing. It took them 20
minutes to walk that baby up the hill and
be back down in 2. But they did this often.
One time # 2 son wanted to drive the cart
down. But # 1 son had already decided he
would drive it down each time as the
others were too little to handle it. He was
the driver for #2 and the twins.
But after much badgering, #1 let #2 drive
it down on the condition that #1 got to ride
with him. Not a great idea. As after they
started down about 1/3 of the way, #1 was
complaining about #2's driving abilities.
As it was pretty bouncy, even leaving air
under them. At which time, #2 decided
to take the driving wheel (they had an old
car steering wheel) off and handed it to
#1 and said then you drive. Oh, yes, the
cart hit a slight hole, and it went sideways,
and started to roll, all the way down the hill...
of which the two boys made at least 3 rolls
with it before they decided not to ride it out.

Hunting with a fishing pole

As I told you, there was an area called
Duck Town near by. Just a block away.
My husband was a hunter. But we lived
in the town so, no shooting. So he came
up with this great idea, which he involved
the older son and some of the other kids
went along to watch. Now how do you
shoot ducks in the creek without a gun?
Well, you shoot with a bow and arrow of
course. But he was afraid the ducks may
fly off, so he came up with this great idea.
He would shoot the duck with the bow and
arrow. But the end of the arrow would have
a fish line on it. That was attached to the
fishing pole. Believe it or not, it worked. It
also worked for bringing lost arrows. No
this was not poaching. These were domestic
ducks that were running free and the guys
didn't want them anymore. And they hung
down at the creek under the trees behind
our place.

Monday will be some more of living in Roslyn.