TEN FOOT: That swimming hole known as “Ten Foot” was used by
quite a few Bradford kids, if our feedback is any indication.

Larry Skiver of Lafayette dropped by the other day and regaled
us with a couple stories from the old swimming hole where he and
his “gang” of about a dozen kids used to hang out in the ’40s and
’50s. Incidentally, they measured the depth of the water and found
it to be 13 feet deep. They would dive to the depths from an
overhanging tree limb.

One day, Larry was out on the limb and looked upstream to see a
wall of water 4-6 feet deep heading their way.

“I saw it coming and hollered, ‘Get out of the water!'” Below,
the eight or so kids in the creek scrambled ashore.

A bad storm on the hilltop had caused a dam to break, Larry
said. The resulting wall of water rushed downstream, past Ten Foot,
and through Bradford. Luckily, nobody was hurt or killed by the
wall of water or a pile of debris carried along.

This was in 1948 or 1949, Larry said.

The original item in RTS mentioned the kids using crude oil for
their fires and Larry remembered a tragic case which occurred –
again near Ten Foot – when the youngsters dipped some oil out of a
tank and threw it onto the fire.

A young girl of about 9 was standing on the other side of the
fire, and the flaming crude oil engulfed her. She ran, and the
flames burned her clothes and skin. While the girl survived, she
was extensively burned and required a lengthy recuperation. She
lost an ear to the fire and was badly scarred, Larry remembers.
That was in 1950 or 1951.

He had another story we’ll have to save for a later day.

REUNION: While Larry was talking to us at the front counter at
The Era, another man patiently listened. Turned out, it was another
Ten Foot swimmer named Bernie Julian.

Larry left Bradford in high school and only returned a few years
ago. Bernie, meanwhile, lives on East Avenue.

Their chance meeting at our counter was the first time they had
seen each other in 50 years. And, no, they didn’t recognize one
another. And, yes, they immediately began to reminisce like
crazy.