The Milky Way

A short story about an awesome experience when I was young

“The Milky Way” as we knew it when we were kids, was a magical place we had started going there when we were young and we went there for many years to come. The lot next door was a ten acre field, near the northeast corner there was a small man made road that ran into a mature cedar forest which was lined with ferns, there was a gradual slope down to a good sized creek. At the top of this hill was a small cedar grove, lying amongst these cedars were three old horse drawn milk wagons. Each of them were laying on their sides in the muddy terrain created by ground water run off their down side set of axles had sunken into the wet clay. There were two on the left and one on the right, the first on the left had the body running down the hill with the under carriage facing the trail.  We would climb up the under carriage and get on top of the side of the wagon. And there it was that magical cast iron wheel, after the first time I was shown it by my older brother and his friend I was hooked. I would just carefully climb on and get my feet firmly planted and hold on tight. It would start to spin quite fast, and if I wanted to go faster I would just lean out. I could also pump back and forth to gain speed like a swing. This puppy was not for the faint of heart, the cedar grove was whipping by my head and I was hanging on for dear life, what a bloody rush, boy those were the days. I sure learned about centrifugal force early and we probably got hundreds of hours of entertainment from that blessed iron wheel. The centrifugal force created by the angle of the hill made that wheel spin just from the body weight. I went back many years later just before they turned it into a subdivision, the wagon was rotted but I half climbed up and gave that rusty iron wheel a spin and it spun like the days we used to ride it.

Reviews

[Ufi Auttorri ~ UfoAutho..]

This is the kind of vignette that defines both the individual and humanity. You've captured the essence of this reminiscence wonderfully, Greg. It resonates with me due to a similar childhood background. We had a rope over the creek; not quite the same as your wheel but the opportunity to learn basic physics was there and we took every opportunity to explore the possibilities. ;-) Nicely done.

[Greg Skura]

Thank you for taking the time to review this story, it dawned on me a couple of weeks ago so i jotted it down