tell me about the creeks you used to play in

oh shit so many good memories...

there was a storm drain/ditch behind my friend's house when i was growing up in colorado... that was crawdad territory and my friend was really good at catching them. there were also snakes to be caught as well. one day my friend's little brother found a huge snake that had been wound up in a glass jar with the lid sealed on tightly... it was so gross and useless, so we exchanged it with the neighborhood kids for some crawdads.

further down the ditch went under a bridge into this dam type thing that had giant concrete blocks placed at intermittent levels, i am guessing to catch any drifting debris. we used to hop from one to the other playing tag but it was hard because they were spaced rather far apart.

one day it rained sooo much that the streets flooded, so of course my friends and i went to check out the ditches. they were overflowing so we got a raft (the kind that you lay on in a pool) and proceeded to ride them down the ditch ala huck finn. at some point our raft got a hole in it and we gradually started to sink. i went home soaking wet and filthy as hell so my mom sent me to take a shower. when i got into the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror, there was a spider on top of my head. after being in all that muck and snakes and who knows wet in the ditch, a little spider made me freak out.

there was also a creek (not lined with concrete) that ran behind the houses in a neighborhood about 10 minutes away. we went to that occasionally, swinging from one side to the other on ropes kids would hang from the trees. these trees were bigger so we often climbed them. i think at this creek was where i first experienced "show me yours and i'll show you mine."