Sunday, June 5, 2011

Paving

We lived on Stevens Avenue, a main thoroughfare in the city. From Morrills Corner to Westgate Shopping Center, it's a direct shot of just a little over a mile. In that short distance you can start your schooling in kindergarden, attend elementary school, middle school, high school and graduate from college. Kind of unique, if you ask me. Since it was such a main drag, it got plenty of attention. During my elementary school years, there were quite a few summers that the paving machines and tar trucks lined the Avenue, and the smell of new laid tar permeated the air. After the layer of tar went down, sand was applied and was rolled. The sand was allowed to work its way into the new asphalt and vehicle traffic could proceed. For us and on our bikes, this was always a fun time (you could fly down the street at top speed and slam on your brakes and skid and slide all over the place, kicking up sand in all directions) and a dangerous time (during this activity, kids often went flying off their bikes rolling and tumbling in the street). These were times of major scraped knees, legs and yes, butts. It was summer in the city.

13 comments:

  1. Such a different response to paving...you are a bird, Birdman.

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  2. Another quite familiar story...

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  3. Excellent post and a very nice shot too.

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  4. I always think of newly tarred roads as perfect for roller skating - the kind that you tightened to your shoe with a key and which always loosened and threw you to the ground where you got skinned knees etc. Your posts always tweek so many memories.

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  5. Roller skating was tops in my day. We they used what was called "P Gravel" and that would not work until it was hard like pavement.

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  6. Been away a few days and am now catching up with your exploits--the boy/man with nine lives. Tho, I, too had some wild times on my bicycle and probably still have some gravel embedded in knees and elbows.

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  7. Have you ever considered writing a book Birdman? All I'm saying is .... I'd buy it in a flash!!!

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  8. I remember this activity very well. Not the skidding part but the paving part. I guess most girls were less likely to take a chance on skinned knees or chins.
    Kathy (of Kathy Goes A Ramblin') helped me find a solution to the commenting problem! Yeah!

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  9. Useful post!Any other post is available here...
    ---
    asphalt paving St. Clair county

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  10. hot town, dinosaur smell...



    Aloha from Waikiki :)

    Comfort Spiral

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  11. I love Claudia's comment: "hot town, dinosaur smell . . . " How come I don't think of comments like that?

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  12. this is a blog mmmm

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