2AM: boys, fishing, and logs

I had one of those experiences  where I woke up at 2 am. I was remembering a fishing trip I had with some friends.  The 4 of us were in the 4th and 5th grades. One friend and me stumbled on a promising looking pond for fishing during our explorations.  I am sure it was on the property of Old Ben #9……a coal mine . The coal mine property was surrounded with signs that read Keep Out Property of Old Ben Coal Mine.   The nice part was that the road near the pond on said Old Ben Coal Mine,  Travel At You Own Risk.  Clearly, it was OK for us to be there.

So we gathered up two more friends and headed out to the pond to go fishing with tarps, rope, blankets, and fishing poles.  It was fall; we set up camp and lit a fire.   Overnight, the temp seriously dropped. We were low on firewood, so we went out searching for some in the dark. One member of our group found a pile of huge logs. We hauled four of them back to camp and enjoyed a nice warm fire for the rest of the night.

Of course, being older,   I appreciate those logs more.  I wonder how much those four new telephone poles cost that we burned early that morning.

Oh, my!!

Looks like, by today’s standards, that fire cost over $1000.00.  The darndest thing is that I can’t remember if we caught any fish.

I wonder how you managed to burn that much overnight. Telephone poles burn slow.

Hi Pearl

I am really wondering. A 16 foot utility pole is supposed to weigh 700  pounds .   I seriously doubt if 4 boys hauled a 700 pound pole. Now the diameter is in question.  The poles were certainly longer than ..say..8 feet.

I find that a pole 12 feet long and 8 inches in diameter weighs under 100 pounds.  That makes sense for 4 boys to haul….even if we add some weight for how the wood may have been preserved.  Given the poles were undoubtedly for internal use by the mine, they could well have been smaller than present day utility poles.  That makes our crime less than $1000.00.  …..maybe $500 or less?