Eternal Summer #3 - Adventure

Under Minneapolis, 1968

The summer after I graduated from High School was an awkward time, I was neither man nor child, but dimly aware that after college started in the fall my world would change forever. There was still the neighborhood gang, boys ranging in age from 14 to 17, too young to drink and it was too early to be doing drugs (that would hit our backwater town a year or two later.) And there was still summer, with its inevitable surprises.

There were other illicit adventures to be had, and exploring the storm sewers was one of them. We did have the sense to check the weather first, although we never went far enough to get into real trouble. Part of the thrill was the sense of dread while crawling on your belly in a tight pipe for hundreds of feet, and then the sense of accomplishment when you finally made it into a small junction- a space big enough to sit down and light candles and savor the moment.

Those storm drains have long since been fenced off, I'm sure that getting caught in one now would earn a youthful miscreant a trip to jail. It is dangerous, more than one "urban explorer" has perished recently in the catacombs of Minneapolis. But danger is the attraction, for a dank sewer's charms are few.