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I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters.
Frank Lloyd Wright
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2. ManHole Stories
ever fallen down a manhole? Found an interesting story on manhole covers in the news? Have Jokes involving manhole covers?
Know anyone who can take video footage of manhole exploration?
Send your story to: me!
And choose here:
2. manhole adventures
As a boy, I grew up in Albuquerque, NM during the 1960s. Many of the streets of Albuquerque were built on old ravines. This is because the ravines were flat, sandy and
generally free of large rocks; an easy place to build a road.
These former-ravine streets; however, were subject to flash floods after heavy rains that sometimes took place in the spring or summer. Albuquerque is built at the base
of the Sandia Mountains, at the southern tip of the Rockies. Heavy rain in these mountains would end up roaring down the streets of Albuquerque within an hour or two,
sometimes sweeping away cars and flooding homes.
In the spring and summer, when the sky was dark and threatening and when a flash flood was a possibility, my friends and I would get our flashlights, pry up a manhole and
enter the city rain runoff system (not sewage) under the streets. We would run through the pitch black darkness, through the huge underground pipes, seeing our way with our
flashlights. The possibility of a flash flood and drowning was a great thrill, if a dangerous one.
Of course, this did not happen, or you would not be reading this.
One game was to take many turnoffs and become hopelessly lost. We would then make bets as to where we were. We would then climb up to a manhole and carefully push it
up when we could hear no cars coming. We were often very surprised at our location. Generally, we had come only a mile or so, although it would seem like many miles.
On one occasion, while running along, I failed to notice the sewer pipe had narrowed. I ran right into the pipe joint and knocked myself out. My flashlight hit the bottom of the
pipe and went out. When I came to a minute or two later, my friends had run on, never noticing I was no longer with them. They took a few turns and when they did notice I was
gone, could not find me again. Fortunately, the flashlight still worked and I found my way to them by hollering and watching for their lights in the tunnels to the sides as I moved
on.
Somehow, I grew up, despite taking such risks.
Don
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