The city had made sewer service available to our street the

The city had made sewer service available to our street the year before and my dad had hand dug (!) the sewer line from the back of the house, around the south side and to the street. (This must be 100 linear feet - think about it.) It sloped from about 2 feet deep at the back of the house to about 6 feet deep at the front of the property where it tied into the common sewer line. When I think about this I grow even more respect for Donald Senior.

The downside of this sewer is that it was constructed of concrete pipe. This would have been constructed of PVC by this time, but not then. Concrete pipes allow water to seep through especially at the joints. Oak tree roots seek water and the pipe seepage drew them like a magnet. The roots penetrated the pipe and began to impede the flow of the sewage downstream.

Dad had a solution to this periodic sewer blockage. Dad dug pits along the sewer and cracked holes in the top of the concrete pipe. He could then run a wire with a hook on it up and down the pipe to pull the clogs apart. He covered these holes in the pipe with bent over expired car license plates.