Bells Wood and 8th Grade Engineering

Bells Wood, a small moraine left by glacial till, was covered with red oak. It remained uncultivated, due to its sloping terrain, just two miles west of town.

My best friend, and fellow model builder, Milton lived 5 homes down the alley connecting our block.

In the summer we would walk past his uncle Spy Jones' home, just outside of town, to roast wieners with buns in Bells Wood, our idea of camping.

In the fall we took our dads' shotguns and a pocket full of #8 shells and headed for the small willow covered pond, hoping for a stray duck, on our way to Bells Wood, to hunt fox squirrels, an 8^th grade idea of sport.

In the winter we pulled Milton's 8-foot toboggan to Bells Wood.

The run we built between the red oak became faster and faster as it packed in.

Eventually the wire fence at the bottom of the run became an obstacle.

However, as 8^th grade engineers we soon constructed a snow ramp up and over the fence, to extend the ride.

We reached the ramp at a good speed, Milton in front, myself in back. I remember going up, but nothing more.

My friend Milton loaded me on the toboggan and pulled me back to his kind mother's kitchen in town.

Apparently the bridge of my nose collided with of the front curve of Milton's 8 ft toboggan as we came down, not on the back side of our ramp.

8^th grade engineering.

However, Doc Koop the town doctor pronounced me well, so we finished the afternoon building model airplanes, with hot chocolate and cookies his mother always made for us.