Southwest Sierra #123, Part 2 – Alleghany School Days

Another Alleghany School memory that also involves balls takes place down on the outdoor asphalt ball court. The court is still there, but nature is doing a good job reclaiming it. The tall fence has become a blackberry trellis, and young cedar trees are growing through the asphalt. The court is located down a steep bank below Miners Street. I have many memories of being let out for recess and going down the stairs, then across the street and down the steep trail to the court as fast as I could! The cement stairs were hazardous, and we weren’t supposed to run down them, so we would trot. Once we were across the street, though, we would RUN!

The court seemed new when my family arrived in 1975. Possibly, it was installed around the time that the gym was deemed unsafe. The main playground was in the school yard around the school building. Even though the playground wasn’t flat, it did contain two swing sets, a merry-go-round, teeter totters, a slide, monkey bars, and a Maypole. I spent an inordinate amount of time swinging on the monkey bars. My hands were solid calluses. But back to the ball story.

Down on the ball court, we often used those red rubber inflatable balls that most schools have. We used them for dodgeball, kickball, and sometimes just for bouncing and goofing off. Well, it just so happens that when Bill’s Fencing out of Paradise installed the fence around the ball court, they installed the chain link upside down. What this meant was that the top of the fence was SHARP. You can guess what happened anytime one of those red rubber balls would hit the top of the fence: depending on the amount of force with which it hit the top of the fence, it would either deflate slowly or POP!

As mentioned in a previous article, after my family moved to Alleghany from the Mott Cabin, Dad was hired on as the school custodian. As soon as he saw the situation with the fence and the red rubber balls, he went out there with a tall ladder and a pair of plyers. He used the pliers to bend each and every spike down, so that the fence top was no longer sharp. Popped balls became a thing of the past. The little metal plaque that says: “Installed by Bill’s Fencing” is still there, and it’s been turned right-side up!