2-19-2012- hate that when that happens. 

city of canton part 2

       a friend of mine now and who was considerably older than i was when i was about 8 years old had taken me and my brother coon hunting on the city farm. this was before they had lagoons instead they had large sludge ponds and that was the term they used for it as , no one used that four letter word s---much back then, when i was that age.

     carl poole was the friends name and he was doing me a favor as we were out coon hunting of which i really did none but instead chose to go along and enjoy this adventure. it was always nice to get to see areas close to home as little coves , strip mines and brier tangles allowed for plenty of cover. we never knew what was going to turn up . i was never crazy about hunting. i liked to go along and at first feigned an interest in hunting to just be involved in the excitement that occurred on a hunt. well i was getting tired as it had been awhile since we last saw the dogs, and the thing about coon hunting is that it seems like the dogs are always just over the hill. i was tired and carl offered me a ride on his shoulders, and i gladly accepted being much smaller than i am now but still a good size chunk. carl is still a good  man of swarthy stature and much like my self now minus my gut. i was still a load for him as we climbed to the highest hill on the city farm. this is where the sludge starts. several times we had crossed ditches as we followed the dogs.

      we had been climbing a while up hill through the trees and into an opening while all the time walking in the dark of the night with just one flashlight leading the way. me on carls'  back and fighting the still heat of the night as i felt carl start to wobble forward and i grabbed his head and leaned back as far as i could as he just about walked into a sludge pond. he reeled back with me on his shoulders like a weeble and he never fell down , but it was close. i was down in a flash, off his shoulders  and we all just sat there and laughed at how close we were to going headfirst into the sludge pond black goo, Texas tea. still sends shivers up my spine.

       this was where it all begins from a famous slogan as everyone knows s--- runs down hill. well some enterprising person decided to get a sewer line to the top of this  hill and would run sludge into the pond , and from there it went on its paths down a circuitous  route  over the hills for miles as it snaked around the hillsides. black goo could be seen in wide swaths basking in the sun drawing flies to feed. the smell would change your appreciation for anything else besides this stuff. 

       we americans' eat healthy and at times to well, and in canton they would pipe this affluence south in a huge sewer line i believe still exists today along side the nimisilla creek to the old sewage treatment plant across st rt. 800,from the end of east sparta ave. close to our home. from the old plant the line went towards and under st. rt . 800 and into the field beyond the intersection of st. rt . 800 and east sparta ave. imagine it is still under there , just has portions abandoned. then it would run across the field and straight to top of the hill. where they would dump it into the pond we almost fell into. animals would sometimes wander into these ponds and die as when they fell in, the sludge would act like quicksand to envelope and encase anything that touched it. and really to fall in this pit would be worse than you can imagine we felt like we had escaped death that day. and it was years again before i attempted coon hunting . having a vivid memory of that night. 

       well s--- happens as it did one day in the summer not long after that as firefighters were called to put out a blaze on a field saturated by sludge , that had started when a city worker had threw his cigarette down and started a grass fire fire that would burn and smolder for over six months. they had to bring in dozers and corral the blaze in as they cut a fire ring around the exterior of the burning area. this allowed the center to eventually burn over 20 acres of land up, trees and all. the flames had mostly burned out in a couple of days of hot weather but the sludge they had poured over the years and had accumulated in depths of up to 4-5 foot in places was now burning like peat or firewood, only not in open flames but in a slow burn below the surface . pocking the surface of the burned out area to resemble what one would imagine the moon to look like. a vast barren crater filled gray dusty , and downright un forgiving place. isn't it amazing how us humans can take an otherwise perfect image of eden and transform it in to our personal hell with out trying? 

        after awhile we had the chance to go visit his place and we did try to walk through the field and we would sink into some places up to three feet or more and it made walking hard to do. in the summer this area was covered by grass, and then the sludge was spread over the land covering the grass. the grass would die somewhat but always managed to survive and grow again . we walked over this grass and it would hurt your legs after awhile as it was so soft to walk on. year after year of accumulation resulted in this fire.  they had spread the sludge for over thirty years this way and so after this episode they needed to do something else . their next effort was the six pond sludge facility and then the lake. 

      well i am trying to get you back to the lake we commonly referred to as lake cmich, who was then canton mayor and so needed honored. at that time it seemed as if what ever canton wanted to do it was fine with our local government . we didn't seem to have much say in anything that went on. as kids i saw it as an exciting way to watch new construction. as an adult i have mixed emotions about the whole thing as you can tell or will be able to tell after i finish writing about it. well tomorrow we will be getting around to the building and eventual destruction of lake cmich. no sludge.or yes there was bunches of it. 

     the pictures i thought were pretty as friend of mine was in agreement so i decided to use them as they are closest thing to city farm that is still pretty and takes your mind off those other hellish images i tried to portray as realistically as i could. and these were from February 2, 2011. according to time stamp on digital picture.