Climbing Trees (and rocks and bridges)

Climbing trees was one of my favorite pastimes growing up in Germantown. I climbed a lot of them. Most of them were down the street in Logan Park which was a big influence in my childhood. Not only was it close to our house but it was practically in the backyard of Nana Emery's house too. Our early babysitter Aunt Dot would often take us into the park when we were toddlers. That park was in our blood. I also climbed trees in Fernhill Park and up at the Wissahickon Park.

Logan Park was the closest and the place with the most opportunities. There were lots of the right kinds of trees with lots of low hanging strong branches. There was one area of the park where we spent a lot of time in the trees. I was probably in the age range of 9 to 13 at my prime tree climbing time. It was also a social thing with groups of us doing it together. A bunch of kids would climb the same tree and hang out for hours talking. It was mostly guys but a few girls too. One of the trees we spent a lot of time in was near a park fence and on the other side of the fence were people's backyards. I wonder what they thought of the group of kids in the tree all the time near their backyard and back of their house. Sometimes we sat there in the tree watching all the activities going on in the various backyards.

Another park activity we were doing at the time was rock climbing. I certainly don't mean what is considered "rock climbing" today but there were a lot of large rocks in our parks which we also loved to climb and hang our on. We often climbed the rocks at the Happy Hollow playground which was created out of an old quarry. There were some very steep rock climbing there... well, for kids. We spent a lot of time on those rocks overlooking the playing fields and basketball courts.

We climbed a lot of rocks at the Wissahickon too. Those were some serious rocks often overlooking the gorge with the creek running along the bottom. I spent a lot of time hanging out at the Wissy and sitting around on the rocks with a group of teens. Some of the kids did a little more risking activities by climbing the foundations of some of the bridges going across the Wissahickon and I mean very high and dangerous climbing. The Walnut Lane Bridge, the McCallum Street Bridge and of course the Henry Ave Bridge. They were all very high and massive.

Last fall while Becky and I were visiting Katie and the kids in Mt Airy Todd, Henry and I went for a hike in the Wissahickon near their neighborhood. I described watching other kids climb the bridge we were passing under. I only climbed around the base a little. Henry was getting worried.

We also climbed the buttresses of the expressway bridge down in Fernhill Park near Roberts Ave and Wayne Junction. That was a little scary too.