As I grew up on our steep dirt road, Mexico Lane, I came to realize that it was the middle one of three steep roads that went from the level road Barrett Hill Road down to the valley far below. Barrett Hill did not give the impression of being high up, just another country road through the woods with a sprinkling of houses on both sides.

Barrett Hill was paved, though still a pretty bumpy ride, always in need of repair. But the three dirt roads that took off from Barrett Hill, while all starting out innocently, each became steep, steep enough that you had to think twice about driving up any of them, and would drive down them very slowly.

Our Mexico Lane, as mentioned, had a sign warning not to bicycle on it. It had a set of lovely flat spots, each connected by a sharp hill to the next. But below our driveway it was just pure steep dirt road, with loose rocks all over it, which would make your tires spin and your car give up, should you try to drive up it without care.

The first of the three was Bullet Hole Road, a great name for a country dirt road. It ran past the fields of the Henchen diary farm, a true farm, one of the last in Mahopac. Some of Bullet Hole was not all that steep, but there was a section that made you think twice, specially in winter.

And the third dirt road was Hitchcock Hill. Not steep at the top nor at the bottom, but the middle section was scary. And all my years going to school by bus, the bus would never take Mexico Lane, always Hitchcock Hill Road. It fit the route better, picking up the few kids that lived even further out in the sticks than we did.

One winter day there had been an ice storm and while the paved roads were not bad, the dirt roads had sheets of ice. And Nate, our bus driver took us down Hitchcock Hill that day. He went as slow as he could, but at some point the whole bus was on a sheet of ice at the steepest part of the road. The bus started sliding and quickly turned sideways, slamming into the sides of the road, wedged right across the road at the base of the steep section.

The steering wheel had been wrenched around by the front wheels hitting the ditch and Nate’s hand was hurt.

I have a clear memory of that bus jammed sideways in the road and I was scared silly that some other vehicle would come down the road and slide into the bus.

I have no memory of how we got to school that day. No idea how Nate called for help, no radio, no phones. Maybe a kid was selected to walk down the road to the nearest house to call the school.

Maybe we all walked down the hill to meet another bus sent to pick us up. No idea. Eventually some crew came and yanked the bus out of there.

Once in a while if I walked from our house up Mexico Lane to Barrett Hill and saw that I had missed the bus, I would turn around and run all the way down Mexico Lane to catch the bus as it came down Hitchcock Hill.

All three steep dirt roads ended up on Hill Street, another paved road. I remember Hill Street as being long and terribly steep as well, but in fact it is not steep at all. It’s only steep in my 5 year old’s memory.

But the other three, the dirt roads, really were steep. But all three are paved now, which is great for the people who live there, but it makes me sad, and I avoid seeing them this way.