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Growing Up in Rock Falls
Park 1953-1980 Trudy Gumpp Maffioli Left: Trudy Gumpp with her camera, 1967 More of Trudy's photos are available in the gallery under Rock Falls History. |
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How
do I try to tell you about magic in just a paragraph of two? I
have been asked to write what it was like to grow up at Rock Falls
Park. I am delighted to be able to tell people that I was born in
the right place at the right time. My cousins all agree on this
one, that going to our Grandparents' house was a real treat. Pap
and Grandma [Carlyle and Mary Crouch] lived in the first house as you
went into the park.
My parents house was farther back in the park. My Mom sold the
cottage in the late 1970s. I loved living there! I was
brought home from the hospital to that cottage, and called it home for
27 years. I even brought my babies home to live there for
awhile. They do not remember, except for photos of them there. Left: The Crouch Family-- Vera, Doris, Warren, Wanda [mother], Ronnie and Darlene Crouch, near the entrance to Rock Falls Park. The family moved from Claytonia. |
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I
lived in an amusement park and thought that it was the normal thing to
do. I rode the merry-go-round there as a child. It was
magic. My Grandfather was the one who would run it. Little
did we know what a gem this was! The horses with the real hair
for tails! And this is where I lived, thought everyone had this
in their backyard. Left: Rock Falls Park carousel on the Smithsonian Mall, 1972 |
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The
swimming pool was so awesome. My Grandfather, Carlyle Crouch,
was so very handy. He built a new filter system for the
pool. I used to hang out with him and we would test the pool with
chemicals to make sure it was just right. I learned how to swim,
however, by the boat house in Slippery Rock Creek. As a little
girl, I would fish there too. But the pool was magic! My
Mom
would have the whole family over on Sundays for a cook-out in our
backyard, then we were off to the pool. Such good times. Left: Trudy and Denise Schilling of Pittsburgh, whose family owned one of the cottages |
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My
Dad, Andy Gumpp, was into music. He was the organ player at Skate
Land.
He also played at Etna Springs. I was on skates at age 18
months. Again, thinking this is normal and everyone does. Then there was the dance hall, as we called it, with the Juke box playing. I would float on a raft in the pool and listen to the latest hits. I became a pinball wizard, as there were awesome pinball machines there, in the dance hall. Left: Andy Gumpp, Skate Land, late 50s-early 60s |
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The Water Babies would come up from Pittsburgh, and do
their shows.
Awesome, Olympic material and we would watch it from the balcony of my
Grandparents home, thinking this was normal stuff everyone did.
This is stuff you see in Hollywood on the classic channel! It
would be so busy there in the summer, as a lot of the surrounding
cottages were owned by people from Pittsburgh. In the winter, it
got quiet, and just a handful of people like me and my Mom would
remain, the McPhersons, my Grandparents, Mac and Emily McDonald (the
owners of the park), the Ramseys, the Rashes, Mae and John Barnes, and
Vicky Satori who lived near the creek. Left: From the grove, the merry-go-round and skating rink all closed up for the winter, 1963 |
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Slippery
Rock Creek can get mean and hard and flood the whole park! Wow,
after a hurricane [Hurricane Agnes, 1972], it would get bad. The
road that would lead us
to our home would totally disappear. My Mom would just drive
through and I remember being sort of scared as a child, actually, I was
terrified! Left: The flooded park, October 1954 |
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One year it snowed really
bad and a lot of the kids who lived in the
park were hired to remove snow from the roof of the skating rink.
We were in our glory! The park locals, who lived there year
around. We were just having a lot of fun on a snow day. Left: Pool and dance hall in snow, 1967 |
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When
I was three, a new dam was built to replace the old Daugherty
log Dam. There was no water flow in the creek bed while the new
dam
was installed. Left: Dry creek bed, October 18, 1956 |
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My
oldest cousin, Billy Reemsten, and I always thought we should try to
buy the park and bring it back. It was our dream. We loved
it there so much. It never happened. We always talked about
it however. I moved out West to pursue life and he moved to
NY. I am so happy to see a comeback and wish to come and visit
once again! I hope to see it in a better state than what I had
seen in some photos. Hope to see the park one day again in her
glory which she so much deserves! Left: Guardian of memories past, 2005, photo of abandoned lifeguard's chair by Rhonda Crouch |
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I would stay at my
Grandparents home and could
hear the water rushing over the Falls.
When I dream at night, my mind
always takes me back to the park that will always be my home!
That is me, that is where I came from! A sweet story, I remember
it well. :) Magic! |
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These thoughts and
remembrances are dedicated to all of the Crouch
Family by Trudy Gumpp Maffioli, March 2010 Left: Carlyle and Mary Crouch, Trudy's grandparents |
Rock Falls Park
P.O. Box
Slippery Rock, PA 16057
724-724-2040
rockfallslive@gmail.com