Catherine Fox
Writes about her home town of Hot Springs...

     Recently I had the wonderful privilege of revisiting Hot Springs, this time with all four of my children who live in various places across the United States.

    This trip back to the "old home place" was a wonderful Christmas gift from my family.

    Although I love Oregon, where I have resided for a number of years, I have an unfading soft spot in my heart for Hot Springs. If I were a poet, I would write a poem about that beautiful, unique little town. But I'll settle for writing my thoughts in prose.

   I started the first grade in Hot Springs and am a 1942 graduate of Hot Springs High School. Then later, after I went away to college and married, my husband, Ken, and I lived there during most of the 1950's. He served as minister of the Church of Christ, and then taught at the junior high school.

    I see changes in Hot Springs mainly in many more businesses, and great accommodations. The spacious new library building is outstanding. Also, I saw new housing developments - places I never imagined houses would someday stand.

    I walked the Freedom Trail, along the river all the way through town, and found the experience delightful. I remembered how that charming, shallow river with its crystal clear water provided safe places for little children to play (with mother supervising, of course) and have loads of fun.

    We all enjoyed a swim in Evan's plunge. I delight to describe to my Oregon acquaintances how Cold Brook and Hot Brook run together at the north end of town. Then the stream flows into Evans Plunge, with many springs feeding from below. I brag that it is the largest indoor mineral, warm-water plunge in the world! From there the water forms Fall River and flows all the way through town, which is nestled in a valley. I tell them how the water steams in the winter because it is warm and therefore never freezes. And then I have to add the joke baout the fellow who, when he was told that the water never freezes, thought, "Good deal," and put it in his car radiator. Oops!

     I remember the spot in one of those brooks where we could drive our car right into the creek and wash it.

    I like to picture the long section of the main street with businesses on one side and the river on the other. But, tell me: what happened to the goldfish? I missed them. On the other hand, I was amazed with deer and turkeys we saw all over town. A charming addition.

    So many things about Hot Springs are unique. Now, the Mammoth Site has been discovered. There many animal skeletons can be seen where they fell into a sink hole many years ago and couldn't get out. Just to think that when we were in high school, about a mile from that site, we never dreamed that not far below the surface of the ground lay such a fantastic view of past history.

    One could spend a whole day in the fascinating museum housed in the old grade school building where both I and my sons attended school. I wonder how many people have gone to grade school on a hill where they climbed a long trail of cement steps on one side, or up a steep gravel path on the other side to get to their classroom. (I know the gravel path later became another set of steps and now isn't used at all.)

    This is Norm and I standing at the foot of the stairs that I climbed on my first day of school (1st grade).

    I remember the scary and fun fire escapes at that building. These were round metal cylinders on the sides of the building that contained a spiral slide. Someone would stand at the bottom to catch you. Some kids were afraid to go down. I heard a story about one little girl in a classroom on the third floor. The other kids always made sure that she was the last one to go down the slide because she would be so scared that she would wet her pants, and who wanted to slide down after her? But I thought the slide was fun and felt cheated the years my room was in the basement, and we didn't get to use the slide. Those lucky kids on the third floor!

     At the foot of the hill, across from what used to be the library, was a big culvert. Tall enough to stand in, and we could walk underground for the whole block until it came out at the river. The eerie feeling in the cold, dark, cobweb-laden passageway, made it both scary and exciting.

    We had to approach the high school, across the river on an opposite hill, by climbing another set of many steps, unless you lived on that same hill.

    As I passed the same city hall as in years gone by, I could imagine my father, who was the Justice of the Peace and small claims court judge, sitting at his typewriter in his office. I remembered the time when I was awakened in the middle of the night when a young couple, who couldn't wait until morning, found the judge at his tiny home and were married with my mother as the witness.

    I was sorry this week in September wasn't the season for wild crocuses, the state flower. A special memory, when I was a kid, is climbing hills behind our house to pick arm-loads of crocuses that covered the north side of the hills in early spring. And then finding enough vases and jars to put them in water when we got home. We had a contest to see who could find the first crocus, poking its pale purple head through the snow. In Oregon we have beautiful domestic crocuses, but somehow they just aren't the same.

    We enjoyed seeing the homes where we used to live, especially the one that originally my parents built, and though different, with its blue stucco siding rather than brown shingles, is still there. We also visited the home that used to be the chuch parsonage. The wonderfully hospitable couple who live there showed us the many changes, with new rooms and rearrangement of old ones.

    We took flowers to the attractive cemetery on top of a hill where my parents and other relatives are buried.

    I have always been especially enthralled by Kidney Springs, across the river from the business section. It has a list of all the minerals in the water, and tells how it helps you healthwise. If you think it tastes odd but, that is only because it is warm. Just take it home and put it in your refrigerator and when it's cold it doesn't taste bad at all. I brought a plastic bottle of it home.

    Hot Springs is conveniently located, making it easy to see all the great attractions in the Black Hills. We enjoyed many of those during the week, including the picturesque Needles Highway, Mt. Rushmore, the 1880 train, and Wind Cave where my husband used to work as a guide in the summertime.

    We had a picnic under the covered area in Chatauqua Park. I had organized this earlier from my Oregon home. We invited relatives (some from the Rapid City area) and friends from years ago and had a great time.

    I had a fantastic reunion, with all four of my children under the same roof with me for the first time in several years, and in a place which holds such pleasant memories. I will always have a nostalgic feeling for that charming, unique, and beloved little city.

    God bless and guide all of you in my most favorite of all towns.

    Catherine Fox