Alum Creek-Standing Still In Time: Memories Of Old Alum Creek

We went walking on the Alum Creek Dam just before this terrible flu attacked. My daughter took a picture of Old Africa Road to show her grandma. I have very few memories of what it looked like before the dam was put in. What I remember was how many farms dotted the little Alum Creek valley and alum creek was just a small creek that snaked along inside of it. Old iron bridges dotted the landscape over the water marking the many roads that trekked to one side to the other side. Just a lovely little community living a life of simplicity. My ancestors were buried in a tiny grave yard just off of Old Africa road. Two orchards The Buckingham and Smith operated across Africa road from one another. The smith being the oldest. Many times my parents bought apples and apple cider from them. Old South Berlin Church set as well on Africa road, just down the way. Old Africa Road was a hilly thing.
My parents, aunts and uncles all had married in this grand red brick church. My grandpa Havens had made 16 mm films of the church weddings, once as an addition was put on to the back of the church .
Just before the dam took away all those wonderful ways of life from us in 1973, a service was held at South Berlin Church before it was marked to be torn down. As I recall it was a warm sunny day and inside the church it was crowded and hot. Crowded to show how many people loved and raised a family while worshiping there. Now the remains of the church sits underwater, with only the windows to ever prove its existence, being placed in the 1973 Berlin Church on Old State road.
Some of the old apple trees probably remain, but no one can get to them and the cemetery was moved and placed behind The Berlin Township House, newly built in the same year. In 2009 more caskets and vaults surfaced from Alum Creek of what wasn't recovered in the first move of the cemetery. I can remember, this happening several times over the years following the dam.
Old Cheshire Road bridge, I remember was a rot iron thing that you drove up hill to cross to get to Cheshire Market, at the time closest for my parents to grocery shop. Many times the creek flooded washing over the road. My dad took all of us around the valley area before it was flooded to make the dam. Old State Road became Lackey Old State. Boats ramps were made from remnants of old roads.
Even today parts of those old roads can be seen driving around the area, sad in so many ways to me. I'd admit I had fun enjoying the dam after it was put in. Fishing with my brother and sisters on grandpa's Starcraft boat. Many wonderful memories are of those days with grandpa and then swimming at the beach that was finally put in , in the early eighties.
I can share some of those memories with my kids now..its nice to relate to them all the old stories and how it was back when I was a little girl. I am not sure if it is a sad memory or not, but it does kinda seem down-trodden . So much of it was history and now is history.