See that bus stop, on the right side of the photo? Our neighbour Kurt Gehmlich blew it up once, during his brief career as a junior high munitions expert. It flew up in the air, crossed all the way over those four lanes, plus the median, and came to smash on this side of the street.
A little later Kurt extended his research by conducting experiments on the effects of dropping a bomb down the toilet in the boys' bathroom at the Riverbend Jr. High. He would subsequently discuss those findings with the Edmonton Police Department.
Kurt also altered motor vehicles so that they could go quite a bit faster than they were supposed to. He once built me a very nice pair of speakers. Another time we were driving eastward on Whyte Avenue, just approaching the A&W on the right there, when he spotted an attractive young woman on the side walk. In a way not at all leering or unseemly, he turned to observe her for just a second. And then slammed into the guy who had just stopped right in front of us.
I believe he is now a successful engineer.
Here's where the Gehmliches lived.
They lived on 51st Avenue. We were on 49th. A field separated our two houses, or our two streets. Here it is.
Much athletical activity took place here, often or even mostly between Scott and I. 500, mostly. Until we went to the high school we also crossed this field every morning on the way to school. This is the same field, seen from the Gehmlich side.
You get to our place by going around that tree at the right end of the grouping in the middle. Here's the grouping, and the field, seen from the west.
The ravine! The Ravine, I mean! O, hill! O, mythological space! Let's come back to here, a little later.
As for two the two outdoor hockey rinks in every community ...
