A hidden gem no more

Photo courtesy of St. Paul Pioneer Press who received it from St. Paul Regional Water Services)

It's a sad day. I've been hearing whispers about this in the last couple weeks and a sadness would wash over me.

I once wrote about a place my brother liked to go called the Reservoir. It was the place my mother never wanted us to go to because she thought we would fall through and die. It's the place where endless keggers were thrown for generations...it was the highest place that I knew of in our city and it had a spectacular view.

Today, there's an article in the local paper about this place with photos...honestly, this might sound crazy but it was a beautiful structure buried under our feet. Never in a million years would I have believed something like this was under our feet as we partied all night. I always imagined some big black holding tank that would eat me up.

It's no more...demolition has begun. In it's place will be put some ugly modern version of a holding tank:

"It will not be covered with earth like the old reservoir, Schuler said, but the water service plans to add elements that will help it blend into the forest.

"We're trying to do a low-key one," Schuler said.

Perhaps it's just living in this town we live in now and their fixation with preserving everything or maybe it's the ruination of a symbol of some really good times in our lives, or maybe it's the idea that people have to destroy something that is actually a beautiful piece of work from our past...Either way, it's just a sad day to realize the hidden gem that I took endless steps on, attended numerous parties at, star gazed, and just sat and enjoyed the peace is now a thing of the past....sometimes wouldn't it just be nice if people would leave things alone?

This looks like it was a really cool place to explore and ooh and aww over. Ah, just change is not always the easiest thing...Pat and I talked about visiting the "Rez" one of these days for old time sake...well, scratch that idea. Now we're too late.

I know, it's only a Reservoir but that reservoir holds a lot of memories for myself and I'm sure many of my friends and siblings...And I know, I can kick and scream and be sad all I want but in the end, things do need to change and be more practical..it just sucks is all!