This is My Hometown...Number 4

I have had this one in mind for weeks now, but it took me a couple of weeks to get the picture I wanted and another week for me to actually download the picture off my camera and onto my computer.

Cool, Clear, Water

One of the great things about living in a small town, is we are still small enough that we care about nature! So much in fact, that we still have an open creek that runs through the middle of town. For those of you that don't know, the picture seen here is of Salt Creek; (if you are from Nephi, it is referred to as "The Creek")which coincidentally enough runs out of Salt Creek Canyon.

While growing up, my summers centered around this beautiful water. The Salt Creek flowed on the edge of my Grandpa Williams yard. Although, it is no longer still standing, there was an old wooden bridge that spanned across the creek and I loved being able to sit on the bridge and drop a string and a hook on a homemade fishing pole into the creek. There might have even been a time or two that I managed to pull a German Brown out of the water. Playing in the water was always a cool and refreshing treat. Despite always being warned to "Stay out of the creek" often times I managed to find myself knee deep into the water.

One of my favorite summertime activities was "floating down the creek". This is a pretty self-explanatory event, but I will still give you a little background. To float the creek you would either need an old tube, not a small car tube, but one from a truck or maybe a tractor. (Tractors were good for multi-riders.) Sometimes instead of the tube you could get a piece of foam from Utah Foam Products. These were large pieces of foam, that were probably 4-5 feet wide by 4-5 feet tall. I believe this is the same kind of foam that is now used for archery targets, so it is large and very buoyant. Once you secured your flotations device, changed into a swimming suit or an old pair of shorts and a pair of gym shoes, you had to talk a parent into taking you up to the top of town.

Once you arrived at the desired location you would pile out of the back of the truck and make your way down to the creek. You had to find a slow spot in the water so you could jump onto your tube or foam and away you would go. Of course you didn't want to get too far in front of your friends, because the reason to float down the creek was to hang out with your buddies. You would run into the sides of the creek, had to push yourself off a few of the rocks, watch for branches hanging down over the water. It was a great time!

About the time you reached first East, you had to decide whether or not you were going to float under Main Street. This was a big decision, after all back then I-15 was Nephi Main Street, so if you crossed on top "Main" you had to deal with a very busy road. Summertime travelers, semi-trucks, and people traveling to their destinations. You had to deal with everything you see on a freeway today, but with the added congestion of Nephites trying to get to their desired locations. However, if you decided to stay floating on the creek you had to go under main street and of course all of the rumors had it that, wanderers, murderers, ghosts, monsters, and bats lived under the road. You never knew which of these you were going to face as you floated under the road. Which of course none of them were ever there, except maybe the bats and they didn't bother you. But if one of the semi-trucks happened to pass over top the same time you were underneath it was a bit unnerving.

Once you crossed main, the rest of the ride was slow and relaxing. You held onto it as long as you could, because you only had a couple more blocks until the ride was over, well...until next time. How I long for those days. Not the dog days of summer, but the lazy days of summer! Often times during the evenings I will drive over the creek, or will take a bike ride past some of the old spots, I remember back to those days; the fun carefree days that I once had. Remembering back to those days, the happy good times. Floating down the cool clear water of The Salt Creek. That is one of the reasons why I love Nephi and I like to call it home.