Harp Hallow was our magical place. All kids have one... that one place where friends gather, smoke, laugh, tell lies, share dreams, start rock bands, make love, get high, build fires and night by night, weave wonderful, mythical, memories in time. You've heard of other such places in song. Lakeside Park by Rush, Thunder Road, Bruce Springsteen, Strawberry Fields, Beatles and many more. Places of such vivid and romantic imagery, the reality of revisiting could never live up to the myth. But in my mind, HARP HALLOW will always be my Strawberry Fields, my Lakeside Park...my childhood place. It's no myth.
Harp Hallow existed, and still exists in the woods behind Monroe Grade school. Many of us considered the site at the edge of Mardell manor ( before a steep hill plunged into a valley with tons of trees and rock), the actual HARP HALLOW. However, Harp Hallow was really ALL the woods. Once down the sometimes treacherous paths to the bottom of the forrest floor, the landscape opened up and there were many trails and walkways that led in either direction. One emptied out on Smithville hill in front of Lauterbach Park. This was often an entrance point that we would take and follow all the way down... then, finally up the steep hill back to our neighborhood. I can remember older guys taking me down there in the 60's and getting lost, once with my brother Jamey. He was so afraid we would never find our home that he actually cried when I assured him we had finally found our way back. I really was lost but didn't tell him.
On the other side of the gulley, was Wooddale. Many of our friends lived in that subdivision and we would ofter meet at the bottom of the "forrest". It was almost like middle Earth or some Elvin enchanted wood from The Hobbit. During one period of time, I had a girlfriend who lived in Wooddale across the great Elvin divide. We would call each other and meet at the bottom of the forrest. We made love there once. Our last time together. One night, many years after high school, The drummer and I took the rest of our band down there after a gig. We were in jeans and suit coats but the night was bright due to a full summer moon! The other two guys were nervous and scared as we shared a bottle of home made wine on the trails and shimmied across fallen tree trunks over a streams of running water. We knew this area from our childhood, and had absolutely no trouble finding our way down the "mountain side' and back. Crazy.
In high school, before we were old enough to go to clubs or bars, many of us would call each other and plan on meeting at our favorite Harp Hallow site on the Manor side of the cliff. Some one would have some pot and we'd all try and score a few bottles of Boonesfarm Strawberry Hill. We'd build a fire and hang out, sing, and laugh loudly. This was before boom boxes so I don't really remember having music there much. I think we sang more than anything else. Later on, as I got older, I'd still find friends and gather there. My ICC buddies, we're taken to Harp Hallow on many nights. In fact, one such night in September of 1978, I heard that Keith Moon had died. I remember having a red and black flannel shirt unbuttoned and fell to my knees when I heard the terrible news. I'm pretty sure this was the night I asked Todd Muir to play Sax with us in Maiden Cane.
The trail from Monroe School to the woods began with an opening in a chain link fence that fed into several trails but one in particular led its way to our site. It was on this path that I smoked pot for the second time and actually got high. We smoked from a pipe with a Gandalf like stem and I went home that Saturday afternoon and first heard Jimi Hendrix in head phones. Amazing.
Harp Hallow was actually a road that led form the old Phillips 66 on Airport road down past houses and then stopped abruptly before the woods. I think there were plans to develop this area but never finished. This was another one of our favorite entrances to our Rivendale!!!!
As we got older and could drive , our trips to Harp Hallow decreased dramatically, but I still revisited it on many occasions. As I said, I brought many new friends there later on. I remember meeting two close friends there on my 27th birthday. It was like old times. We had a boombox by then. I remember walking there the morning after staying up all night at my 30th birthday party. I was with a woman who also stayed up all night My first marriage was beginning to crack up so I was hoping for romance. It didn't happen. I've since brought my kids and my wife of 25 years to Harp Hallow to revisit the ghosts of magic summers. I still try and walk back there every Summer alone once a year to feel the vibe of days gone by. Also,
I've included the name Harp Hallow in a song of mine, forever preserving its place in time.
When Days Were Psychedelic my life is just a relic of how I used to live back in the day.
I'll lead so you must follow me down to old HARP HALLOW forget about tomorrow see you soon!!!!!
Another tale from the ORANGE ROOM.
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