Trust me, I know that there are lots of places with a lot more natural beauty, but something that I took for granted growing up in the Peekskill area was how many bodies of water there was to swim in, skate on, and fish in. Places that one could walk to, or that were a short drive away. I live down county now, and there are no ponds, lakes, streams, creeks, or other natural swimming/skating holes available: None. They’re all either on private land and fenced off and inaccessible, or they’ve been paved over/built on top of. Where I live now, they really have paved paradise and put up a parking lot.
When my daughter was younger and we wanted to go ice skating outside, we ended up driving 25 miles north (!) to the FDR State Park in Yorktown (formerly Lake Mohansic). It was the closest and best option.
In contrast, me and my neighborhood buddies had a three minute walk up to Lockwood’s Pond (right near Timmy Hogan’s house). It wasn’t necessarily swimmable, but we fished for sunnies there all the time, and it was the site of some über-fun ice hockey games (Right Wing: John Vallorosi. Starring in goal: Paul “Dr. No” DePaoli).
When I was small we used to swim at Lakeland Acres, a great spot on Oregon Road. It’s long since gone: currently that property (the old Jamison spread) is the home of the Hollow Brook Golf and Country Club. When we were a bit older, Mrs. DePaoli would take us all up to Lake Osceola, in Jefferson Valley. That lake used to feel like a summer vacation, with boats and floating docks and lakeside restaurants: it was paradise for us kids. (Thanks Mrs. D!)
In high school, when we could drive, the world was our swimming-hole oyster. Putnam Valley was a treasure trove of lakes, with Oscawana, Lake Peekskill, Dennytown and Indian Lakes, to name a few.
Scott Klarer was head lifeguard and Eddie Reilly beach boy captain at Lake Peekskill. We used to bring our girlfriends and swim up there on summer nights. Scott turned some of us on to the many pleasures of the best Put Valley spots, most notably Roaring Brook Lake, off Pudding Street (ahem.)
Cortland Lake in Continental Village, known simply as “The Lake”, no doubt figured (and probably still does figure) in many a WPHS grads’ youthful escapades. Ibid for Lake Mohegan, an idyllic little place that used to be a bungalow retreat for summering NYC residents, replete with lakeside handball and basketball courts. My good friend Kenny DaRos was a lifeguard there. Lake Mohegan was where he and Danny Arnold and Eric Blattman honed their very considerable athletic skills. (My mom currently lives in a condo on that lake).
The best water to swim in, but a place we had to work hard to get into (and out of if the cops came) was the Croton Reservoir. That water felt like silk on the skin, and refreshed like no other. I’m sure I’m leaving out so many great places: creeks and swamps, lakes and ponds that were part of each of the dozens of neighborhoods us Panas kids grew up in (Lake Allendale, for instance: sorry, Perse).
I remember during our senior year, after KD and Tony Maresco were accepted to West Point, a bunch of us spent an idyllic summer afternoon exploring “Hell Hole”, a fast moving stream fed by Popolopen and Mine Lakes just across the Hudson. It starts way up in Bear Mountain, runs through USMA property, and eventually drains into the River. It is (or was) a rocky and fast moving creek with a series of small, pristine plunge pools and waterfalls. We hiked about ten miles up Popolopen Creek that day, and discovered for ourselves a whole new world…
I’ve told this story here before, but since we’re talking about swimming spots, I’ll tell it again. One of the more notorious places to swim, and familiar to all ‘Panas grads, was “The Quarry”. Supposedly it was a, uh, well, it was an old rock quarry. The story goes that once upon a time the workmen were digging and accidentally struck a subterranean pool. The place filled up so fast that the cranes and bulldozers (and men) are supposedly still down at the bottom. They say it’s hundreds of feet deep; the Quarry did have a haunted feel to it. The body of water is surrounded on all sides by almost sheer granite walls, and the more daring kids among us (Wayne Lowe and Bobby Spost and Dicky Miskell) would dive and somersault off of the highest cliffs. I couldn’t even bring myself to jump feet first off of those things…. The Quarry is (was) accessible by footpath only, and there used to be a well travelled path from Panas High to it.
One spring day late in the school year, a bunch of us cut out of school to swim for a couple of hours. Farley was there, Mike Leonard, Eddie Reilly, Lips, Zee-Zay, Spanky, Dre, maybe a couple more. It was blazing hot, and the Quarry was like a reflecting bowl in that heat. Guys generally didn’t wear anything but jeans and t-shirts to school in 1978 (cargo shorts didn't exist) so swimming there on a school day meant butt-naked or skivvies. We piled all of our clothes on the rocks and jumped in. After a time some guys got out to have a smoke (everyone smoked back then); a match was carelessly flung too near the large pile of clothes. We didn’t notice until it was too late, and after a momentary freak-out during which some items were tossed into the water, we took stock. Turns out my left sneaker was now at the bottom of the quarry with those old bulldozers, my Fruit of the Looms were incinerated, and my left Levi’s pant leg was burned off up to just below the crotch. Everybody else’s stuff was fine. Well, that seemed to be the funniest thing in the world to everyone there. Dudes were falling all over each other in glee…all except me, that is: we walked to the place; we still had afternoon classes; we were all squarely on Mr. Hughes’ and Ms. Payne’s nuisance radar, and…what was I supposed to wear back to school?
Somebody broke out a Swiss Army knife and fashioned an early version of blue jean hot-pants. I looked ridiculous, but I had very little choice. Back we went through the woods. I don’t remember how the rest of that day played out; selective memory, I’m sure. Footnote: I got poison ivy hiking out of there… |
