6th Street near the Playground -- Wellsville, Ohio (a memory)

It was at the corner of 6th Street and Lisbon Street, just over the seldom used railroad tracks. The tracks that we would place pennies on, and then watch the slow moving train squash them big to the size of a quarter, and paper-thin flat.

The corner at Lisbon, the street just below Buckeye Avenue. The north corner of the intersection. A white cement block, one story home. A building that in my later high school years, me, Dexter Messer, Gary Rosenlieb and I can't remember who else, would enter.
Then, it was abandoned, due to be demolished along with all of Buckeye Ave. That street being replaced by the new four lane Route 7. We used to call that route Super Road. We had stopped in that house to chug a couple of fifths of lime vodka on our way to a band gig. A gig for the Martells, our R&B band. It was dark on a cool fall evening.

But in an earlier time it was bright sunshine and lush green grass. And fresh water was flowing down the hill, along the street's curbside gutter. It flowed down to where I stood at the corner of 6th and Lisbon. A clear memory remains in my mind of looking down at the clear clean cool water.

Across the street was a vacant lot. You couldn't call it a park. It was just grass in a recessed area, about one story below street level. A not too steep slope took you down into the basin of the lot. It was as if something had stood there, years and years before. But now it was a soft grassy place with some trees on the sides. It took up half of the block. Woods took up the other half.

We played football there. Mostly, I remember that we played "rough 'em up and tumble". Was that really a game? Did kids from other towns play that game? When there weren't enough kids to play a real game of football, rough 'em up and tumble ensued.

The ball was thrown up into the air and someone would be brave enough to catch it. The ball runner would then have to dodge everybody, running to stay upright. Everyone's goal was to tackle him.