Exploring the Old House on the Hill

Wilburton, Oklahoma, November 6th, 2010.

Ashley, Jordan and Hailey decided they wanted to see the house on the hill. Where is that house on the hill? What was Rock City? Mike and I decided to venture to the hill country. North hill that is. The hill side had decided to reclaim the lot. You could barely see the house from the road. We drove up to the top of the hill. The girls explored the house. Ashley said, "This house is small.". Small? This house was huge growing up. What was she talking about? We went upstairs to check out the bedrooms and explored the rest of the house. The ceilings on the second floor seemed low. I don't recall them being this low growing up. We walked outside and we went to the bank behind the house. This is where I spend my after school time. I built streets and buildings for the inhabitants of Rock City. Built the paper box plant to provide jobs to the citizens. This is where Rock City existed. There was nothing left. The streets and rock buildings of the past, gone. As with all cities abandoned by time nature had reclaimed Rock City. The walking path down to the junk house had been taken over by vines (you couldn't see the path). The path from the junk house to the road was gone. Elm shrubs had taken over the path. This was the short cut we used to walk to school.


The junk house was looking to be in sad shape. The pre-fab building Dad had started to put up was still standing but with no walls. I remember walking home from lunch to see the bulldozer clearing out the road to the junk house. Mike talked about the cement truck delivering the cement up to the split level. The cement truck on backing down that steep drive way lost control. The truck zoomed down the hillside out of control and luckily headed into the trees across the street. The cement truck took out several trees before stopping. No one was hurt. Memories of the house on the hill.


The girls decided they wanted to walk back to NeeNee's. Uncle Mike walked with them. They went further up the hill to take the old school steps back to the house. The house on the hill. Memories of the past. It too would eventually be reclaimed by the hill side.