Innocence Lost

1979 - 1981

In the summer of 1979 my family lived a few blocks from a state park in California, Henry Cowell Redwood State Park. It was for as long as I could remember my brother’s and mine own personal play ground. We would ride bikes there, go hiking, fish in the San Lorenzo River, climb trees and basically be the rugged backwoods boys my father had intended us to be. We were after all our father’s children, and he would have nothing other than that.

                During that summer though we boys were forbidden to enter the park by our parents, which was a torture worse than death. We didn’t fully understand the reasoning then but now years on I understand, and sympathize with my parents plight. I realized now the fear and trepidation they had each time we went there especially knowing now what they knew then.

                I will never confess that during that period that my brother and I blatantly disobeyed them on their banning of us visiting the park, but I am sure somewhere in the back of my father’s mind he knows. After all it was our personal playground, and nothing would keep us from being the boys we were back then, not even potential punishment.

                Back then as kids we were lost in the bliss of our youthful ignorance. Nothing mattered outside of us, and the tiny part of the world we lived in. We had no care for watching the news, unless it was to try and see coverage of a fire our father fought, or to see if the weather was going to be alright for us to play outside. These were the days when slasher films were becoming all the rage, Halloween, Friday the thirteenth and the likes. We had not a clue that there were people out there that were that insane, to perpetrate such crimes. It did not make sense to us and there for was withheld from us what the real reason was for our being banned from going into the park.

                There was a person stalking people around California and murdering them, he was dubbed The Trailside Killer. John Carpenter was the person and he was caught after a while. Knowing what I know about the case now I am surprised my father banned us. He is pretty damned sensible and analytical, and this killer’s Modus Operandi was to find a young lady and rape her and the kill her. I personally do not think he would have been interested in my brother and I. However as a father now I can honestly say my reaction to the situation or something similar would be probably the same.

                During the summer of 1980 we moved to another house where there was another state park close by called Fall Creek and even though we had moved to another section of town, the same rules applied, do not go into the park, stay away from the hiking trails and stay out of the woods, home before dark, and always let the parents know where you were. I hated it. With just a few exceptions we lived by the rules there as well, after all we had to go explore our new digs, and find out what it was like. I again will never tell my father of these rule infractions as well, he might have a heart attack or try and ground me now for the infraction 30 years old. Even though I am a forty year old man now, and he would have no way of enforcing such grounding, he would try.

                Even into 1981 the same rules were in place. Shortly before summer break started our parents lifted the ban and said we could venture into the parks once more. The brought relief to our play time, we loved biking in the trails of the Santa Cruz Mountains and playing in the creeks and rivers there. I was sent away from the summer to spend it with my grandparents in Bend Oregon, but when I returned it went back to a state as if nothing had happened and we had not been stopped from entering our sacred place, our place of peace and childhood innocence.

                As I write this tonight I am pondering a trip we are planning on going back to my home town, I am home sick. I miss the backwoods community I grew up in; I miss the beauty of the place. I miss being blissfully innocent and oblivious to the dangers of this world. Even though we are planning this trip I know full well that you can go back and visit the same places but you cannot unwind the hands of time.

Author's Note

Thankyou for reading my work