I was lucky enough the have this guy teach us when we were too young to understand how much knowledge he was trying to pass to us. By the grace of pure luck some of it sank into my hard head and it has helped me feed my family for 20 plus years. Thank you Mr Pete. I’m on my way to work now!
I was not fortunate enough to have Mr. Pete as a teacher in my younger day but probably had several other instructors who did their best to try to educate me and keep me on the right path, me being too immature at the time to appreciate the value of their investment in my future. At age 68, however, I am lucky to have Mr Pete as my TH-cam Shop Teacher and this time around I am smart enough to appreciate all he does to educate (and entertain) me and thousands of others like me. THANK YOU MR PETE!
I have always loved stories like these. The effort you put into the adventure is admirable and it's much appreciated that you are passing the story to us. Thanks, Mr. Pete.
What a great story! My take-away is that adventure is what you make of it. I'll bet there were a bunch of guys your age in your hometown saying, "This is the most boring place on Earth." But you looked around and saw an opportunity for adventure. Bravo! I was at least ten years older when I started thinking along those lines.
Great story, Mr. Pete. I can't wait for part 2. Just remember, these stories will be cherished by your offspring forever. I wish I would have thought to sit Dad, Grandpa, and my Uncle down to get these kind of stories from them.
I once floated down the Kankakee River in an inner tube. My only provision was beer. I remember the first part of the trip, but the end gets a little foggy.
Looking forward to the adventure story. When you said this was when you were in college, the first thing to come to my mind was Kon Tiki. Thanks, Mr Pete
As a child I built a raft as well. I saw plans in Popular Science for a "bleach bottle raft." I had to re-engineer the thing to fit into my Dad's station wagon and my Mom saved plastic bleach bottles for me for almost a year to get enough. The thing was so heavy that it took two of us to load it into the car. My Dad humored me by taking me over to Spirit Lake to try it out. Well it floated, sort of, being too heavy with all the wood I used. But then it was time to go home and Dad wouldn't let me put it into the car with it being all soaking wet. So it was left on the bank of the lake and I never saw it again. Your video makes me think of those days when kids built things instead of buying ready made things. I look forward to hearing "the rest of the story."
Wow, you’re worse than me. When we had our epic boat trip to Florida, we met two boys on a makeshift raft. They had come from West Virginia on the Ohio river. We would meet up with them from time to time and tie up together and talk. On the side of the raft , in huge letters, it said pray for us. That’s a story in itself. It shows that there are other crazy people, but not many, they were all playing a little league
I wish I had pictures and video of Detroit when I grew up, before "The Fall.". Great memories. Then, so sad when like a piece of fruit you save for after evening meal, forgotten, and found rotten later. They say they're bringing it back. They don't even know what it was. Many Afford Groceries Agan. Thanks Lyle.
@@mrpete222 The videos that told the truth about what happened were put behind pay walls, then UN Appeared. The gang stuff. The criminal politics. The foreign influence. All now rewritten and pointing at me ... an old man who ran from Detroit when I found it wasn't safe for my family or me. I abandoned Detroit they say. No, Detroit left me. Been a member of a much better, small community, ever since 74.
Thanks for sharing your memories. Ever considered writing a book of your memoirs? Your narrative paints a wonderful picture and your memory is fantastic. Looking forward to part 2.
I always enjoy your stories. It reminds me of my youth. I now live about 600 miles from Napa and only have three friends left there. One has been a friend for 70 years and the other two for 56 years. My friend of 70 years and some other friends use to make tin boats out of corrugated tin. We would hammer the ripples out of the tin till it was flat. We would fold up one end and stick in a hunk of 2x4 and nail it in place making the front of the boat and then fold up the back and fit in the side piece of a orange crate for the rear. We would then seal the ends up with roofing tar. The Napa creek was 100 feet from our back door where we swam, fished and floated our boats. Sometimes we would float down to the Napa River.
I lived in Chicago (born and raised)) in the early 1960’s and the difference between then and now are plenty. Today you’d probably be arrested and fined because of no permits and some sort of illegal activity and trespassing rules. When I think back on my childhood I’m most disappointed in the freedom that’s been lost and how kids can’t learn and discover things for themselves because of rules, dangerous people or nosy neighbors who want to impose their beliefs on them. I did injoy your trip down memory lane though and it gave me a chance to remember life as it was. I would be interested in learning what (or who) you threw off of the old slew/slooh? Bridge back then though. Thanks
It wasn’t anything like that, and thank goodness, we never went through with it. Or I would still be in the slammer. Most younger people have no clue how many freedoms they have lost to a wicked totalitarian governments. They are absolutely clueless and will vote for more of it.
I love your way of growing up! (our growing up) It made us grow with drive and character. It built imagination and skills/ problem-solving techniques and made dreams come true. It turned boys into men and girls into women. It just seems like it was so much more practical and important to grow up the way we did compared to modern day growing up times for kids with a phone and I pad.. Seems now days young men and young women don't even know what or who they are after they reach adulthood. Thanks for the videos! I should be in church this morning, but now I got to go to the shop and use my imagination and crafting skills and work at one of my extra-curricular projects for a few moments before I move on to the next day's project!
It was in the early 50's when I was eating shredded wheat and reading the cereal box. Inside the box was a card with a picture of Tonto building a rift to float down a river. I put that card aside because I wanted to build that raft and float down a river when I got older. .. Maybe it is not too late.
Charles Atlas, “World’s most perfect man” was my idol and inspiration when I was a skinny 15 years old boy. I wanted so much to have those big muscles and to kick sand in other skinny boys faces and steal their girlfriends. Alas, the Charles Atlas “Dynamic Tension” exercises to build them cost $9.95 and I didn’t have enough money from picking cotton to buy them. Anyway, my parents would have considered it a foolish waste of money. I had to wait for the army and basic training for the muscles. Thanks for sharing your fascinating adventures of boyhood with us.
That was fun. I was back n forth to google earth to see where you launched and exited the river. I bet that bridge key would make a man out of ya. Cant wait for the next edition.
Please keep these stories coming! I am over a decade behind you, but my life included similar adventures and reflected only minor cultural and technology advancements that is s reflected in the adventures. I love to tell these stories to my youngsters, but I edit the parts that now bring to mind too much shame. Your stories bring to mind from my youth things that I seldom recall. I almost was tempted recently to tell how we figured out how to get under a freight elevator and hang from the conduit on the bottom of the car to ride above the third floor. This allowed you to swing enough to open the shaft doors and swing and jump onto the second floor deck. A long story is needed to tell how we had access to this building, had time time to invent this idea, modify the elevator, increasingly dare each other into increasingly dangerous activity, and hide evidence of our play from the building owner. I may explain this to the grandsons when they are too old to attempt similar foolishness. They create enough of their own danger.
Only Mr Pete can just pop along to an estate sale to buy exactly the right water way map in order to illustrate a video 5:39 . Only when you can do such a thing like this can you truly call yourself an estate sale jedi master 😄 Glad you decided to share this with us (but don't us English viewers get a welcome at the start of the videos Mr Pete?)
Great start to the anecdote, totally watchable. Your use of the maps and charts helps immensely to paint a picture of what happened, please keep using them.
Yes it was! I remember it quite well, even though I was about seven or eight years old when they tore down. It was in disuse for several years, parked in the open position. Open to barges.
The adventure begins. I have a question for you Mr Pete. I believe we use to go to some stores on the corner of 51 and Shooting Park road. Was it Arlans and Carrs? I think there was a grocery store there. I think my parents quit going to the grocery store because we bought some chicken and was was really bad. It smelled aweful. I was probably more interested to go to Sandy's. I want to say those stores closed when the mall and Kmart started but can't quite remember.
Yes, I remember Arlan’s and cars very well. The grocery store was Eagle. That building was torn down and now it is a CVS drugstore. The arlans building is still there. But it is now habitat restore. I used to eat at Sandy’s all the time. There was a Sandy’s in Bloomington when I went to college we ate there almost daily. You have a good memory. They built a big Casey’s store where the old Blakely’s house was.
@@mrpete222 I was thinking of the grocery store before Eagles. We had it locally along with Hornsby store so they had to be something different for mom. I want to say it was Denlers or something like that.
You need to rephrase that as follows. “ I love your stories”. You will know that almost no one watched it. That’s why I haven’t made part two . A dismal abject failure. But thank you for your faithfulness and interest
Just last week I found the book of Huck Finns Adventures in a thrift store and just finished reading it , it’s been over 60 years since the last time I read it. Best 25 cents I ever spent 😉 ! Thanks for the story’s !
Great story so far! Thor's books were practically required reading in my house when I was a kid! The closest I got was paddling all over the San Fransisco bay in home made kayaks. We almost got stuck a few times when the tide would go out! (Actually, one can still do this, which is refreshing!)
Great stuff, certainly the stuff of boyhood dreams. Peru, IL kept ringing a tiny bell in my brain for awhile, then I figured it out, Maze Nails. A quick search of the map shows that they're maybe half a mile west of the old bridge.
You are correct. And maze lumber and Cole is located under the Green Bridge and the mazes were our next-door neighbor to the east of mom‘s home. I knew them all and they are wonderful people and they own the American Nickelodeon as well. Look that up.
That slough looks pretty much like an ancient river channel. The way the river bends now it would be eroding the north abutment of the old bridge, which is why none of it is left except for a bit of rubble.
Great experience and video. Did you ever get to meet Ralph, the owner of Chicagoland Canoe Base? They did reenactments of the French Explorers and fur trappers that traveled and explored the Midwest in canoes. They did a number of reenactments on Illinois Rivers. If I'm not mistaken they tried to keep everything as authentic as possible.
How wonderful to recall the things we did as youngsters 60 some years ago. Not only do young people today not have those opportunities, they probably don't understand why we even did all that stuff. As a young man I flew airplanes, raced cars, rebuilt motorcycles (scooters), fished in the ocean with 20-22 foot long boats with 50 HP outboard motors, shot targets, hunted small game, learned to reload ammunition...the list goes on of things we did and learned back when dinosaurs walked the earth. Also paddled ocean to ocean through the Panama Canal in dugout cayucos, to emulate the local Indians.
I lived in Pekin Illinois which is situated on that river as a teen at that time, and thought about doing that but all I did was water ski on it😅 This is a great story! Looking forward to hearing the rest of it.
As a child, I was fascinated with the story of Huck Finn and his travels. We didn’t have many large rivers to explore in Florida, at least I didn’t think that were near me. My grandfather always wanted to travel down the St. Johns river in Florida, but I was too ignorant to realize that it would've been an EPIC journey for us to take. I'm sorry, Daddy Ray, that we didn't realize that it was something that we should have done!
Very interesting video Lyle. Really enjoyed it. Have to laugh - we live about15 miles north of US 6 - it runs through northern Pennsylvania. Never thought that I could just turn right and get to your neck of the woods. LOL. Being 5 years younger than you there are many,, many similarities in what we experienced growing up. Including shooting rats at the dump.
When I was about 14, my brother and I, he's 5 years younger than me, built a 14 foot flat bottom boat for the Fox River. I asked my father if we could put the boat on his car to get it down to the river. He said hell no! So I built a trailer using bicycle forks and wheels and hauled down to the river by hand. It was over a mile! We enjoyed that boat all summer until someone stole it! Great memories!
Looking forward to the "Rest of the Story". It's the kind of adventure that I thought of as a kid in the early 60's in semi-rural Ontario. It looks like it could be a lot of fun now. How far do you think we could get on a raft today? May be something for a follow up vid. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and a bit of your life.
I love the history.My brother took his sailboat down that stretch a few years ago.I am reading a new book Life on the mississippi by Rinker Buck He tooka flat boat from Pittsburgh to the Gulf.
Good morning Mr. Pete. (You have to imagine that as if it were a group voice. A classroom of voices!). Good story. Cool bridge. Eagerly awaiting the next part. Heading to a flea market in Maryland shortly. Wish me luck! 😁👍😁
I imagine the pillar in the middle of the river had a big ring gear on it, or at least a bit more that 1/4 of a ring gear, and the key turned a pinion that engaged the ring gear and was part of the bridge. I would guess it would taken 10-20 turns of the key to turn the bridge a quarter turn.
We just had a kayaker from Michigan drown on the Illinois just above the LaGrange lock and dam in Brown County. People don't appreciate just how dangerous the Illinois River is, especially between Peoria and the Mississippi.
We lived right on a river & had a sawmill about a quarter mile upstream that cut some dandy cedar lumber that would “accidentally” wind up rolling down the hill to the river, where it would magically become a raft.
Des Plains river! / Chicago "sanitary" canal! A friend living in Joliet always said when the river got low they would call up Chicago and ask them to flush more often. 😁 We also "hunted" rats at a dump with our 22s. My Dad had bought me a single shot 410 when I was still in grade school. Took a gun safety course at the Isaac Walton League and shot trap there. Also when pheasant hunting with my uncles. Can't see that happening today! I graduated from High school in 1960.
You listed all my favorite books that I remember reading as a kid. I think I’ll pick up copies of all of them and give them to my grandkid. Hopefully they will stir his imagination as well. Sadly, to date he is only interested in Batman comics. And Lego.
Please try not speeding up when going through old house neighborhoods, I am from Minneapolis and St, Paul and stuck in Las Vegas...it brought me home for a minute.
Mr. Pete, I had to stop the video at 1:53. I am sure you are wrong, Dick must still have those pictures. If you want, I will go with you and we can rummage through his picture collection until we find them. ;>} And by the way, when you first mentioned this story, my wife and I immediately thought of the Mark Twain books of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.
?I absolutely love your little stories, I guess cause I can relate so well…I’m 78 and grew up on the banks of the Ohio river! Willing to bet we would have been best buds, had we been born in the same location…. BTW, ditto on the “RAT HUNTING”… verbatim !… Did you have Groundhogs ?
We would have had lots of fun, but may have been killed. Never did groundhogs I never did mention in the video, that we did our rat hunting during flood stage rats were everywhere anything that would float.
Great story so far I guess we have something in common when I was 10 we hunted rats with a fishing pole near the canal we pulled them out with bait and did the deed me and my friend were hired by a concrete company to clear them out
I was lucky enough the have this guy teach us when we were too young to understand how much knowledge he was trying to pass to us. By the grace of pure luck some of it sank into my hard head and it has helped me feed my family for 20 plus years. Thank you Mr Pete. I’m on my way to work now!
i know the feeling. you didnt know any better at the time. but hindsight is 2020. if only this countrys youth had the same opportunity.
Hello Luke
I was not fortunate enough to have Mr. Pete as a teacher in my younger day but probably had several other instructors who did their best to try to educate me and keep me on the right path, me being too immature at the time to appreciate the value of their investment in my future. At age 68, however, I am lucky to have Mr Pete as my TH-cam Shop Teacher and this time around I am smart enough to appreciate all he does to educate (and entertain) me and thousands of others like me. THANK YOU MR PETE!
I can't contain my excitement to hear the "rest of the story". Thank you so much!
Hope you enjoy it!
I have always loved stories like these. The effort you put into the adventure is admirable and it's much appreciated that you are passing the story to us. Thanks, Mr. Pete.
i really love these anacdotes mrpete, please never stop the anecdotes.
cheers
ben.
Thank you very much
What a great story! My take-away is that adventure is what you make of it. I'll bet there were a bunch of guys your age in your hometown saying, "This is the most boring place on Earth." But you looked around and saw an opportunity for adventure. Bravo! I was at least ten years older when I started thinking along those lines.
I’m glad you enjoyed the story.
Wow, a raft trip and killing vermin in the same story! Looking forward to part deux Mr.Pete!
I am sure the animal rights people will be mad at me
Great story, Mr. Pete. I can't wait for part 2. Just remember, these stories will be cherished by your offspring forever. I wish I would have thought to sit Dad, Grandpa, and my Uncle down to get these kind of stories from them.
Glad you enjoyed it
I once floated down the Kankakee River in an inner tube. My only provision was beer. I remember the first part of the trip, but the end gets a little foggy.
😁😁😁😁
This is a great story Mr. Pete! Can’t wait for parts two and three.
Looking forward to the adventure story. When you said this was when you were in college, the first thing to come to my mind was Kon Tiki.
Thanks, Mr Pete
Looking forward to part 2!!!
What a great story from back when the world was yours for the taking. looking forward to part two.
Love it. Can you imagine how many permits and nonsense you would have to do this today.
We don’t bother with permits, even if they are required. I hate big brother.
Thanks for the story mr.pete!! Keep em coming 👍
Good morning Lyle. Can’t wait for the next installment. Have a good weekend.
Great story and I can't wait to hear the rest of it.
As a child I built a raft as well. I saw plans in Popular Science for a "bleach bottle raft." I had to re-engineer the thing to fit into my Dad's station wagon and my Mom saved plastic bleach bottles for me for almost a year to get enough. The thing was so heavy that it took two of us to load it into the car. My Dad humored me by taking me over to Spirit Lake to try it out. Well it floated, sort of, being too heavy with all the wood I used. But then it was time to go home and Dad wouldn't let me put it into the car with it being all soaking wet. So it was left on the bank of the lake and I never saw it again. Your video makes me think of those days when kids built things instead of buying ready made things. I look forward to hearing "the rest of the story."
Love it can't wait to see part 2. Brings back a lot of my childhood memories
My brother and I went about 250 miles down the Ohio river in a canoe. Dodging the barges and other boats. Camping on the shoreline. It was fun.
Wow, you’re worse than me.
When we had our epic boat trip to Florida, we met two boys on a makeshift raft. They had come from West Virginia on the Ohio river. We would meet up with them from time to time and tie up together and talk. On the side of the raft , in huge letters, it said pray for us. That’s a story in itself.
It shows that there are other crazy people, but not many, they were all playing a little league
I wish I had pictures and video of Detroit when I grew up, before "The Fall.". Great memories.
Then, so sad when like a piece of fruit you save for after evening meal, forgotten, and found rotten later.
They say they're bringing it back. They don't even know what it was.
Many Afford Groceries Agan.
Thanks Lyle.
I watched a video about Detroit. Pretty sad.
@@mrpete222 The videos that told the truth about what happened were put behind pay walls, then UN Appeared.
The gang stuff. The criminal politics. The foreign influence. All now rewritten and pointing at me ... an old man who ran from Detroit when I found it wasn't safe for my family or me. I abandoned Detroit they say. No, Detroit left me.
Been a member of a much better, small community, ever since 74.
Great story, can't wait for part 2 and the details of the raft construction.
We ❤ what u do ! The algorithm is not kind. Tech savy , and matter of fact straight honest talk.we couldnt ask 4 more.
Liking the anecdotes mrpete. Thanks for sharing your youthful adventures. ATB regards from the UK
Glad you enjoyed it
Kon Tiki was my first thought. Lived in Des Plaines back in 66-67. Great storyMr. PETE!
Glad you enjoyed it
I have a lot of crazy boy hood adventures, your video brings back many memories,thanks for taking us along 🤗😎🤗😎
Make some videos of your adventures
Thanks for sharing your memories.
Ever considered writing a book of your memoirs?
Your narrative paints a wonderful picture and your memory is fantastic.
Looking forward to part 2.
Thank you very much, I thought I did a terrible job
I really enjoy these anecdotes, and they are always interesting, I don't think there's anything like it on TH-cam, please keep 'em coming! cheers
Glad you like them!
Great story so far !!! You lived in a good time more history back then .thanks for sharing 👍. Awaiting part 2 !!!
You are a great story teller
Agreed.
Thank you very much
I always enjoy your stories. It reminds me of my youth. I now live about 600 miles from Napa and only have three friends left there. One has been a friend for 70 years and the other two for 56 years. My friend of 70 years and some other friends use to make tin boats out of corrugated tin. We would hammer the ripples out of the tin till it was flat. We would fold up one end and stick in a hunk of 2x4 and nail it in place making the front of the boat and then fold up the back and fit in the side piece of a orange crate for the rear. We would then seal the ends up with roofing tar. The Napa creek was 100 feet from our back door where we swam, fished and floated our boats. Sometimes we would float down to the Napa River.
👍👍👍👍👍
I lived in Chicago (born and raised)) in the early 1960’s and the difference between then and now are plenty. Today you’d probably be arrested and fined because of no permits and some sort of illegal activity and trespassing rules. When I think back on my childhood I’m most disappointed in the freedom that’s been lost and how kids can’t learn and discover things for themselves because of rules, dangerous people or nosy neighbors who want to impose their beliefs on them. I did injoy your trip down memory lane though and it gave me a chance to remember life as it was. I would be interested in learning what (or who) you threw off of the old slew/slooh? Bridge back then though. Thanks
It wasn’t anything like that, and thank goodness, we never went through with it. Or I would still be in the slammer.
Most younger people have no clue how many freedoms they have lost to a wicked totalitarian governments. They are absolutely clueless and will vote for more of it.
I love your way of growing up! (our growing up) It made us grow with drive and character. It built imagination and skills/ problem-solving techniques and made dreams come true. It turned boys into men and girls into women. It just seems like it was so much more practical and important to grow up the way we did compared to modern day growing up times for kids with a phone and I pad.. Seems now days young men and young women don't even know what or who they are after they reach adulthood.
Thanks for the videos! I should be in church this morning, but now I got to go to the shop and use my imagination and crafting skills and work at one of my extra-curricular projects for a few moments before I move on to the next day's project!
👍👍👍
What a great adventure! Building your own raft and floating down the river is a much better activity for boys than staring into video screens
True
It was in the early 50's when I was eating shredded wheat and reading the cereal box. Inside the box was a card with a picture of Tonto building a rift to float down a river. I put that card aside because I wanted to build that raft and float down a river when I got older. .. Maybe it is not too late.
It is not too late. Those old cereal boxes were quite a fascination for children.
Charles Atlas, “World’s most perfect man” was my idol and inspiration when I was a skinny 15 years old boy. I wanted so much to have those big muscles and to kick sand in other skinny boys faces and steal their girlfriends. Alas, the Charles Atlas “Dynamic Tension” exercises to build them cost $9.95 and I didn’t have enough money from picking cotton to buy them. Anyway, my parents would have considered it a foolish waste of money.
I had to wait for the army and basic training for the muscles. Thanks for sharing your fascinating adventures of boyhood with us.
Love your rants and stories.
That was fun. I was back n forth to google earth to see where you launched and exited the river. I bet that bridge key would make a man out of ya. Cant wait for the next edition.
Please keep these stories coming!
I am over a decade behind you, but my life included similar adventures and reflected only minor cultural and technology advancements that is s reflected in the adventures. I love to tell these stories to my youngsters, but I edit the parts that now bring to mind too much shame. Your stories bring to mind from my youth things that I seldom recall. I almost was tempted recently to tell how we figured out how to get under a freight elevator and hang from the conduit on the bottom of the car to ride above the third floor. This allowed you to swing enough to open the shaft doors and swing and jump onto the second floor deck. A long story is needed to tell how we had access to this building, had time time to invent this idea, modify the elevator, increasingly dare each other into increasingly dangerous activity, and hide evidence of our play from the building owner. I may explain this to the grandsons when they are too old to attempt similar foolishness. They create enough of their own danger.
Wow, that’s quite a story. Even more dangerous than some of the craziness that we did. Yes do not tell that to young children.
Only Mr Pete can just pop along to an estate sale to buy exactly the right water way map in order to illustrate a video 5:39 . Only when you can do such a thing like this can you truly call yourself an estate sale jedi master 😄
Glad you decided to share this with us (but don't us English viewers get a welcome at the start of the videos Mr Pete?)
Lol
Love these stories, kids today don’t know what there missing 👍
For one moment, Mr. Pete, I thought this was going to be a short documentary on Thor Heyerdahl and the Kon-Tiki Expedition!! 😀
👍🇬🇧👍🇺🇸👍🇮🇸👍
I had to borrow that thumbnail picture from the Internet since there were no actual pictures of my adventure
@@mrpete222 👍😀👍
I built a log raft that floated just fine.......... about a foot under water!
Lol
Great start to the anecdote, totally watchable.
Your use of the maps and charts helps immensely to paint a picture of what happened, please keep using them.
Thank you, I was afraid people would not like that
Sounds great!
Mr. Pete, you are my favourite "TH-camr". Cannot wait for part II.
😁😁
I like your illustrated stories.
What a great story sir.
Love these anecdotes, Lyle! Thank you for the history, keep them coming!
Glad you like them!
That's an impressive key! What a sight it must have been to see that bridge swing around.
Yes it was!
I remember it quite well, even though I was about seven or eight years old when they tore down. It was in disuse for several years, parked in the open position. Open to barges.
We have an Illinois River here in Oklahoma too. Makes me wonder how it got its name. Gonna have to research it.
How close are u to the river? I'm about a hour and half way from it
Now I live 1/4 of a mile from the Vermillion River. The Illinois river is 12 miles from my house.
@@51-FS If you were asking me, we live in Mannford, 25 miles west of Tulsa.
@@eddalexander9005 I grew up up in prue
Did they blow up the pier that was in the middle of the river that supported the turning bridge or is some of it still there?
It was removed, but I don’t know how they did it because I was only seven
The adventure begins. I have a question for you Mr Pete. I believe we use to go to some stores on the corner of 51 and Shooting Park road. Was it Arlans and Carrs? I think there was a grocery store there. I think my parents quit going to the grocery store because we bought some chicken and was was really bad. It smelled aweful. I was probably more interested to go to Sandy's. I want to say those stores closed when the mall and Kmart started but can't quite remember.
Yes, I remember Arlan’s and cars very well. The grocery store was Eagle. That building was torn down and now it is a CVS drugstore. The arlans building is still there. But it is now habitat restore. I used to eat at Sandy’s all the time. There was a Sandy’s in Bloomington when I went to college we ate there almost daily.
You have a good memory. They built a big Casey’s store where the old Blakely’s house was.
@@mrpete222 I was thinking of the grocery store before Eagles. We had it locally along with Hornsby store so they had to be something different for mom. I want to say it was Denlers or something like that.
Very cool story! Can't wait to hear the rest. I' ma bit behind in my video watching...lol.
We love stories from you,keep them coming!!!
You need to rephrase that as follows. “ I love your stories”.
You will know that almost no one watched it. That’s why I haven’t made part two . A dismal abject failure.
But thank you for your faithfulness and interest
Just last week I found the book of Huck Finns Adventures in a thrift store and just finished reading it , it’s been over 60 years since the last time I read it. Best 25 cents I ever spent 😉 ! Thanks for the story’s !
That was a very cool adventure!
Wonderful story sir. Thank you for sharing it.
Great story so far! Thor's books were practically required reading in my house when I was a kid! The closest I got was paddling all over the San Fransisco bay in home made kayaks. We almost got stuck a few times when the tide would go out! (Actually, one can still do this, which is refreshing!)
That is awesome!
Looking forward to the the next video Mr Pete.
Enjoying the adventure 👍
Great stuff, certainly the stuff of boyhood dreams.
Peru, IL kept ringing a tiny bell in my brain for awhile, then I figured it out, Maze Nails. A quick search of the map shows that they're maybe half a mile west of the old bridge.
You are correct. And maze lumber and Cole is located under the Green Bridge and the mazes were our next-door neighbor to the east of mom‘s home. I knew them all and they are wonderful people and they own the American Nickelodeon as well. Look that up.
That slough looks pretty much like an ancient river channel. The way the river bends now it would be eroding the north abutment of the old bridge, which is why none of it is left except for a bit of rubble.
Interesting video. Cant wait for part two.
How did I miss the release of this video!? Here from This and That 83
Maybe you were ill that day
Great experience and video. Did you ever get to meet Ralph, the owner of Chicagoland Canoe Base? They did reenactments of the French Explorers and fur trappers that traveled and explored the Midwest in canoes. They did a number of reenactments on Illinois Rivers. If I'm not mistaken they tried to keep everything as authentic as possible.
How wonderful to recall the things we did as youngsters 60 some years ago. Not only do young people today not have those opportunities, they probably don't understand why we even did all that stuff. As a young man I flew airplanes, raced cars, rebuilt motorcycles (scooters), fished in the ocean with 20-22 foot long boats with 50 HP outboard motors, shot targets, hunted small game, learned to reload ammunition...the list goes on of things we did and learned back when dinosaurs walked the earth. Also paddled ocean to ocean through the Panama Canal in dugout cayucos, to emulate the local Indians.
Wow, you are a man of high adventure. You should have a TH-cam channel.
I lived in Pekin Illinois which is situated on that river as a teen at that time, and thought about doing that but all I did was water ski on it😅
This is a great story! Looking forward to hearing the rest of it.
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As a child, I was fascinated with the story of Huck Finn and his travels. We didn’t have many large rivers to explore in Florida, at least I didn’t think that were near me. My grandfather always wanted to travel down the St. Johns river in Florida, but I was too ignorant to realize that it would've been an EPIC journey for us to take.
I'm sorry, Daddy Ray, that we didn't realize that it was something that we should have done!
Looking forward to part two.
I love listening to your stories. You give me hope that can keep on working on projects. I'm 70 by the way.
You can do it!
You were hell bent on navigating that river, must have been some treasure at the end of it lol!
lol
Very interesting video Lyle. Really enjoyed it. Have to laugh - we live about15 miles north of US 6 - it runs through northern Pennsylvania. Never thought that I could just turn right and get to your neck of the woods. LOL. Being 5 years younger than you there are many,, many similarities in what we experienced growing up. Including shooting rats at the dump.
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Thank you
When I was about 14, my brother and I, he's 5 years younger than me, built a 14 foot flat bottom boat for the Fox River. I asked my father if we could put the boat on his car to get it down to the river. He said hell no! So I built a trailer using bicycle forks and wheels and hauled down to the river by hand. It was over a mile! We enjoyed that boat all summer until someone stole it! Great memories!
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I love all your videos!
Many congratulations and good blessings for your granddaughters’s wedding. May they have a happy life together.
Thank you so much!
I liked the Thor Heyerdahl Kon-Tiki thumbnail. It's a good analogy lol
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Looking forward to the "Rest of the Story".
It's the kind of adventure that I thought of as a kid in the early 60's in semi-rural Ontario. It looks like it could be a lot of fun now.
How far do you think we could get on a raft today?
May be something for a follow up vid.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge and a bit of your life.
cant wait to hear the rest of the story!
Another find video, captain Pete.
You are correct, I was the captain, and the owner, and the instigator for that matter
Looking forward to the next one Lyle. I remember you mentioned this trip you made a while ago 👍
Love the anecdotes!! Please keep them coming.
Btw, Just ordered Kon-Tiki.
I love the history.My brother took his sailboat down that stretch a few years ago.I am reading a new book Life on the mississippi by Rinker Buck He tooka flat boat from Pittsburgh to the Gulf.
That sounds like good reading.
I guess I forgot to say that I read the book life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain. I think that was the name.
That's one big key for sure. 50 years isn't too bad for that type of a bridge to be in use.
Very interesting.
Good morning Mr. Pete. (You have to imagine that as if it were a group voice. A classroom of voices!). Good story. Cool bridge. Eagerly awaiting the next part. Heading to a flea market in Maryland shortly. Wish me luck! 😁👍😁
Good luck, wish I was going with you. Big auction tomorrow.
@@mrpete222 Thanks Mr. Pete! I did well! Good luck to you tomorrow!
How in the world did a key turn that bridge? Did it engage an electric motor?
Gears and manpower. Remember it was built in 1870.
I imagine the pillar in the middle of the river had a big ring gear on it, or at least a bit more that 1/4 of a ring gear, and the key turned a pinion that engaged the ring gear and was part of the bridge. I would guess it would taken 10-20 turns of the key to turn the bridge a quarter turn.
Thanks for sharing. I remember my feeble attempts at building rafts. Lol
You can do it!
We just had a kayaker from Michigan drown on the Illinois just above the LaGrange lock and dam in Brown County. People don't appreciate just how dangerous the Illinois River is, especially between Peoria and the Mississippi.
We lived right on a river & had a sawmill about a quarter mile upstream that cut some dandy cedar lumber that would “accidentally” wind up rolling down the hill to the river, where it would magically become a raft.
Lol
Thx
Des Plains river! / Chicago "sanitary" canal! A friend living in Joliet always said when the river got low they would call up Chicago and ask them to flush more often. 😁 We also "hunted" rats at a dump with our 22s. My Dad had bought me a single shot 410 when I was still in grade school. Took a gun safety course at the Isaac Walton League and shot trap there. Also when pheasant hunting with my uncles. Can't see that happening today! I graduated from High school in 1960.
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Interesting account Mr Pete !!!
You listed all my favorite books that I remember reading as a kid. I think I’ll pick up copies of all of them and give them to my grandkid. Hopefully they will stir his imagination as well. Sadly, to date he is only interested in Batman comics. And Lego.
Please try not speeding up when going through old house neighborhoods, I am from Minneapolis and St, Paul and stuck in Las Vegas...it brought me home for a minute.
You can slow it down if you want on your tablet most people hate it when I show too much
Thanks Mr Pete for the childhood adventure if you tried that today you would be arrested times sure have changed
True
Mr. Pete, I had to stop the video at 1:53. I am sure you are wrong, Dick must still have those pictures. If you want, I will go with you and we can rummage through his picture collection until we find them. ;>} And by the way, when you first mentioned this story, my wife and I immediately thought of the Mark Twain books of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.
Morning Lyle
?I absolutely love your little stories, I guess cause I can relate so well…I’m 78 and grew up on the banks of the Ohio river! Willing to bet we would have been best buds, had we been born in the same location…. BTW, ditto on the “RAT HUNTING”… verbatim !… Did you have Groundhogs ?
We would have had lots of fun, but may have been killed. Never did groundhogs I never did mention in the video, that we did our rat hunting during flood stage rats were everywhere anything that would float.
Hello Europeans !? 😅😅😅 I love you Mr. Pete !
Lol
Great story so far I guess we have something in common when I was 10 we hunted rats with a fishing pole near the canal we pulled them out with bait and did the deed me and my friend were hired by a concrete company to clear them out
That is awesome!
I wonder if the bridge attendant ever misplaced his key, like i seem to frequently do ? LOL
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