The Quarry

CURWOOD: Some memories remain evergreen in our minds, decades after the person who had the experience has moved on. At least thats what writer Rod Clark found, when he revisited a childhood haunt decades later.

Mysterious woods on the upper level (Photo: Rod Clark)

CLARK: Children are playing hide and seek in the old limestone quarry at the edge of the village where I grew up. I hear them as I walk; their voices ringing high and clear, echoing off the high stone walls among the mysterious trees. Crows complain; squirrels scold the invaders from the safety of green branches. And suddenly, I am carried back to summer days in the 50s, when my brothers and I played Scatter and Capture the Flag on the two wooded levels of the quarry.

Near Deadmans cave (Photo: Rod Clark)

CLARK: Remembering how we crept among the sumac and the shadows of boulders. How honeysuckle perfumed the air; how once I saw a possum hanging by its tail in the cool shade of a Catalpa. And I remember how we named the secret places of our playground: Pirates Path, Lovers Leap, Dead Mans Cave, and most marvelous of all, Cool Cave, which possessed in its depths a limestone nook where you could keep a bottle of Coke cold even in the heat of summer.

The entrance to the cool cave (Photo: Rod Clark)

CLARK: And as I ascend the path to the uppermost ridge to look down on a world mapped by children, some of whom are no longer alive, a small boy pops out of the brush in front of me, his eyes wide, burrs tangled in his hair. Are there any pirates down there? he demands breathlessly. But I am no longer of his world and cannot answer him.

Pirates Playground, lower level (Photo: Rod Clarke)

CLARK: Without waiting for a reply, he plunges into the green realm below. I hear the rapid patter of his feet descending to the second levelpunctuated with improbable leaps and bounds, and suddenly I realize what it is I have been seeking when I make this pilgrimage to the old quarry. Because it is my childhood that is racing away from me, down the steep pathway, among the mysterious trees.

Quarry wall on the upper level (Photo: Rod Clark)

CURWOOD: Rod Clark lives and writes in Cambridge, Wisconsin. He's the editor and publisher of Rosebud magazine, and he took some pictures of the old quarry. They're at our website, LOE.org.