PURDON CROSSING, YUBA RIVER
It was my old pal, David who first took me up there, on a damn hot August day in 1986. We drove up from San Francisco and parked by the old bridge, and hiked a short way to the swimming holes, picnicing and swiming, jumping off of boulders. Later when I moved to Sacramento, it was an easier drive and I went up quite often. When David was in the Nevada County lock-up for a while, I'd go swimming first and then go visit him still damp, just to bother the cops when they searched me. Years before, we had both loved a woman named Cathy back in Texas, who loved us back as brothers, which was not what we wanted, of course. When she died, her turd of a husband had her cremated and just left her ashes on his TV set. In the mid 1990s, David made a stone for her, a big heavy damn thing, and he and I took turns humping it to a spot halfway between Purdon Crossing and Edwards Crossing, and we hid it real good down by the river. I don't think even he and I could ever find it again. We said some prayers and left it there in a spot where the sun shines on the rocky waters. David lives in Hawaii now, but once in a while I go back alone to Purdon Crossing and hike down that trail, and say another prayer. And if it's hot I go for a swim.
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All Good Things - James Lee Jobe
ON-AIR: Midnight to 5 A.M. Monday through Friday, I produce many of the commercials on The Eagle.
