The Ritz

(Pictures below story)

Long before I moved to Cardin, between Cardin and the Blue Goose was The Ritz! 
 Mine, mill, settling pond, and pond.

James Busby and I fished that pond many a day, and caught untold numbers
of bullhead catfish, perch, and carp.  The usual way to get there was to go down the tracks,
then look for the trail through the cattail marsh that someone usually made,
using boards from other places.  The optional route was to go west on what is now
Cardin Lane, almost to my grandmother's house, and south down the access road to where
a mine once stood.  This brought you out to the path to "the island",  actually a
 peninsula, but you had to go around the old shaft on a very narrow trail.
Hence, "Island"

We also had a habit of going swimming when the fish weren't biting.  On one
occasion, we swam west from the island to the high chat bank.  We discovered
that there was a "shelf", out from that bank, that was pretty shallow.
Of course, it had mud a foot deep, so we commenced to have mud fights.
This went on for a while, until I felt something sharp with my knee.  Upon
inspection, we discovered that I had a cut about 2 inches long on that knee,
and I was bleeding like a stuck hog.  Seems folks had used that particular stretch
for target practice with glass bottles and/or jars.

It just so happened that we had pulled my wagon along that day, which turned
out to be a very good thing.  We got back to the island, put on clothes, and made it to the wagon.
James loaded me into the wagon, and hauled me home.  Of course, mom was working evenings,
so I taped it up best I could, and we created a story that I had fallen on broken glass on
the playground behind our house.  Even tore a hole in my jeans about the appropriate place.

I never told my mother the truth about that incident.

Any way, here's what I found.