REMEMBER THE "SANTA FE DIP?"

BY MIL
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WARNING: DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!
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There we were...flying through the air! Oh how I loved
flying...feeling the cool, fresh air rushing through the
windows and caressing my face...the feelings of elation
and exhilaration as a blur of houses and trees sped
by---as I looked out the window.

I'll have to say it: "Levi was a great pilot!" (And he'd never
had a flying lesson.) I loved flying with him! He was daring...
he was bold! But WOW! His landings were terrible. Terrible.
(And he'll admit it.) They just jolted the heck out if you. How
the shocks and springs held up to those landings, I'll never
know.

I learned a basic lesson of life in those days. It was: "If you're
gonna fly...get a plane!" Old 1936 Plymouths are your basic
earth-type vehicles.Of course we did discover something---
they would take off and fly quite a ways if you drove them
over high embankments at 60 MPH. The old "Santa Fe Dip"
just west of town was a great place to fly, as indicated above,
but it would have been better...and safer...with an airplane. It
is surprising that no one was ever hurt in a crash.

Levi had nerves of steel, but he, like the rest of us, had to
have a good five cent John Ruskin cigar to steady his nerves!
And you know, it made us look MACHO!

The so-called Santa Fe Dip was a deep, wide ditch, maybe
thirty feet from one side to the other; it ran north and south
paralleling the last road on the west side of Clovis. Heading
west at right angles was another city dirt road, which sloped
upward to the ditch road, and with an immediate and steep
drop-off, it ran across the bottom of the ditch and up the other
side, which was twelve or fifteen feet lower that the east side
of the ditch and again---thirty feet across.

Thus, daredevil cars would head west, accelerating up to 60
MPH, crossing the N/S road (and hoping there would be no
traffic), sail out across the ditch, all the while falling the twelve
or so feet and landing on the E/W road, heading west, on the
other side of the ditch.

You know, I never knew the ditch had a name until this year
while hanging out with some CHS Class of '53 kids, someone
mentioned it. I had not known, either, that so many kids had
jumped it. Pondering that name, one wonders why it was not
called the "St. Vrain Dip," the "Melrose Dip," or the "Taiban
Dip!"

The latter-mentioned name might hint to someone of alcohol,
which had to be purchased at Taiban, 40 miles west of Clovis,
(I'm told), for Clovis was a dry town. (Alcohol didn't interest
us---I never one time, growing up in Clovis, ever saw a fellow
student drink a beer.)

What the ditch was there for is unclear to me. Maybe it was some
sort of flood control if it rained hard. It was certainly well-graded
and maintained---never saw any weeds! Yes, Clovis had a good
"ditch guy" who did his job!

The auto repair garages were likely kept in business repairing
springs and shock absorbers.

And I can vouch for the fact that 1936 Plymouths have to be---
among the toughest cars ever built! You don't really have to have
a strong car to jump the SF Ditch. You only need a strong car
to do it twice.

We did everything, I suppose, that Evel Knieval did, except there
were no buses in the bottom of our ditch!

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BY MIL
8/11/13

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