Suicide Hill

There was a place down a ways from dad's house called "Suicide Hill". He took me there once when I was a kid, but it didn't look the same as it did when he was little. When he was a kid, there was a cluster of trees in front of it. Like a small wooded area, then a steep drop-off after that. When the NJ turnpike had been built, they had all this extra dirt that they piled up, making this large hill. As the rain waters came, it washed out part of the hill, making it super steep, with large and deep crevices - making it quite dangerous. Thus the title "Suicide Hill". Just the place for boys to ride their bikes, of course!! They would also throw tires down the hill and watch as they hopped down, rolling into the ditches and popping back up again. Or, if it went down just right, it would hop over the ravines. When they rode their bikes down it, they would keep the brakes on the whole time, so they wouldn't go too fast, that way they could have better control and avoid falling into the ditches and hop over the sandy parts that would stop you dead in your tracks and throw you from your bike. And always they would stop before they got too far down at the bottom of the hill, because there was a large, 12' deep crevice at the end that would cause serious harm to anyone who fell in, so they would ride their brakes and stop before they'd get there. And, once they got to the end, they'd walk around to the side that wasn't as steep, carry their bikes up, and do it all over again! Now, dad and Carl's bike was this old metal, springy thing, that wasn't very fast. It was ok, but not really great for riding down Suicide Hill. Their sister Judi's bike, however, was a dream! Yes, it was a girl's bike, but it was fast! One day when Judi was off doing something else, dad and Carl decided to "borrow" her bike and take it to Suicide Hill. Dad wanted to see how much faster he could go with her bike. Now, not a lot of kids rode their bikes down this hill. It was just too dangerous, but dad - being the daredevil that he is - decided to give it a go. Dad started going down the hill, his friends at the top cheering him on, riding his brakes like he was supposed to. Now, I mentioned above how there were sandy patches you had to avoid. It was actually one sandy patch and you had to let go of your brakes to ride through it or you would be flipped from your bike. The timing had to be just right. Now, I don't know if dad got too carried away with the thrill of riding his sister's super-fast bike or if the cheers from his friends got to his head, but he was a little delayed in letting off the brakes when he got to this part and he was flipped off the seat of the bike, landing not to gently on the girl's part of the bike. It caused a great amount of discomfort, but not enough discomfort to distract him from the fact that he now was barrelling down Suicide Hill without the aid of brakes! He tried dragging his feet to slow himself down, but it wasn't working. He was just going faster and faster, the large 12' ravine getting closer and closer. He was convinced at this point he was either going to 1. fall in the ravine and get seriously injured or 2. fall in the ravine and kill himself! Neither one was a very favorable option. One foot from the ravine, he finally got that bike to stop. Literally one foot from certain death, as he put it. He said it was surely an act of God that he stopped at that point, because he was so out of control. Why he didn't make himself crash by tipping the bike over, I'll never know. But, he made it. He said the rush of adrenalin was overpowering! He was exhilarated and scared to death at the same time. His buddies shouted down to see if he was ok. In a falsetto voice (remember he landed on the bar earlier) he called up that he was fine and when he got back up to the top of the hill, they all checked to see if he was good and he shook it off, enjoying the glory from his crazy bike ride. After all the excitement, his little brother Carl wanted to give it a shot. Dad was so scared that Carl would have the same experience he did that he refused to let him do it. Even threatening to beat him up if he tried. That was the last time he, or any of his friends that he knew of, ever went down that hill.