Rolling on the River

Traditionally, towns across the US were established near bodies of water for various reasons. Rison, no doubt, enjoyed the access provided by the Lower Saline River and the other benefits it brought. Like most of us, the availability of Saline River and the opportunity for fun and mischief is certainly part of my fond memories of Rison.

Saline River isn't exactly a recreational treasure by standards that you see posted in vacation propaganda, but it did provide our class of '75 with ample opportunities to gather, fish, swim and an assortment of other activities that I'll skip for the sake of brevity (or for politeness!).

My first real attempt at swimming came via the Saline; I would never recommend the approach my brother and I took. Neither Spiderman or I could 'swim a lick,' yet we agreed to pile into someone's car and bump our way down to the Mt. Elba access point on Saline River to take our chances. Only by the grace of God do we still breath today! It scares me to think that in our great wisdom, we dove into the murky waters of Saline on a dare! At 15 (or whatever age it was) the last thing we wanted was to be labled "chicken." If the water had been running fast, which I assume it wasn't, my brother and I wouldn't be here today. (Naturally, there were no adults around). But, somehow we "dog paddled" our way back to the river's edge multiple times that day, only to turn around and dive in again and again. I wasn't the smart one in our class, remember?

Later in life, the Saline provided what we then called "fellowship opportunities." I mean, we could either hang out at the car wash, or drive down to the river. Often, the river sounded more appealing. These events were typically held at night, as a rule. Looking back from the vantage point of age 50, those nocturnal explorations just don't hold quite the charm that they did back then -but I would hope that I've learned a few things since 1975.

I seem to recall actually fishing the Saline a few times, but don't remember catching anything but a few boney Perch or whatever. I'm sure that there were better places in Cleveland county that I could have fished, but then, fishing wasn't really the point, now was it?

During the hot summer months, there were some places along the Saline that were actually pretty crowded. I guess that was due mostly to the fact that these river access points were free of charge and because they were convenient. And also because we stay bored most of the time during summer months. Again, I fail to see the appeal today - but, in fact, I'm still not much of a swimmer!

Funny thing: looking at the map, you'd think that some adventureous class member would have suggested a float trip. Maybe none of us had a canoe? Or...maybe I just wasn't invited? Hmmm....

-Ken