By Stanton Miller, January 28, 2019 — It was a summer morning in the year 1959. I was nine years old and lived in South Connellsville, PA with my parents and eight siblings. One morning, I was with my friend, Frank, and we decided we were going to go hiking to Abe’s Leap; a large rock that looked out over the river. Before we left, we decided to pack some snacks to bring with us. Frank brought a pack of Ritz Crackers, but I couldn’t find anything to bring – with 9 kids in the house there wasn’t usually much food just laying around.
So, we left on our hiking expedition. We didn’t really know where we were going, but we went up into the woods, past the Brickers’ house, and eventually found it – a high rock. We climbed to the top and stood there admiring the view. Frank was eating his snack, and to amuse himself began to drop rocks and sticks off the ledge. As he watched them fall to the ground, he made sounds like an airplane doing a fierce nose dive before hitting the ground and exploding, “Eeeeeeaaaaaoooowwww powwww!” I wasn’t paying him much attention, but all of a sudden, I heard him go “eeeeeeeaa….gasp, gasp, gasp”. He was choking on his Ritz Crackers! I had no idea what to do, so I just stood there watching him, scared to death. Thank God he ended up being okay. I don’t know what I would have done. It was definitely a day I will never forget – my hiking trip to Abe’s Leap with my friend Frank.