You Got Stunked

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Back in 1973 Our Father moved us to Roseville Ca.

We lived in a little shack of a house on PFE Road near the Curve directly across the road from the Pacific Railroad main switching yards. And Yes, we lived there when the railroad trains full of US military bombs, caught fire and exploded one early Saturday morning back in April 1973. It was a frightening moment in time, which we will never forget. (That’s another One Time Ago story)

 

I and my Twin brother Todd were still in the 8^th 

grade and when we moved to Roseville, it was 

several months into the 1973 school year at Dry 

Creek Elementary. Dry Creek Elementary was a 

very small school and the 7^th & 8^th grade students 

were taught in the same classroom.  Our older 

brother Jody was in his freshman year of High 

school and was now going to Roseville High 

School.

 

Dry Creek Elementary - Roseville, Ca. - Tom Stover Photo

 

We soon made some new friends and the cool thing was, me and my twin brother Todd were good friends with Curt, who was the younger brother of our older brother Jody’s good friend Tal. We spent our high school years as best of friends. That was the best of times back then that we cherish to this day!

Fast Forward to 1974

So Curt and Tal lived on Booth Road (Just past Denio’s Market & Auction) on acreage that butted up to Dry Creek. We would help pick grapes in the nearby grape orchards and also helped Curt with water irrigation piping he was paid by an elderly neighbor to move around to water her pastures. We would have a few Bond-fire parties, hunt, fish, at the creek and dreamed of the day when we were going to buy two old 1962 Ford Falcons and make a race track in the dirt at the back of Tal and Curt’s property and race each other! We didn’t have any money back then so it never happened. Truth be told, I don’t think their parents would have let us anyways.

Chat GPT illustration

 

Curt was one year older than me and my twin 

brother Todd and his grandparents bought him a 

Baby Blue 1974 Ford Pinto when he got his 

learners permit to drive at 15-1/2 years old and he 

would take us everywhere in that car. Plus, Curt 

drove me and Todd home after school a lot that 

year, all the way from Roseville to Loomis, after 

we moved there in December of 1974.

 

Not Curt's Pinto but this is what it looked like - Same color 

HATCHBACK BABY!

– Hey? Don’t laugh…  it was great on gas, and I believe he could get it above 60Mph in 35 seconds or so, well maybe with one person in it. Ok that’s funny right there. We would listen to Deep Purple, Led Zepplin, or Tower of Power music on his state of the art 8-track tape player! – Yer laughing again. On the weekends we would go to the Roseville bowling alley or Birdcage walk to play some pinball or go to Citrus Heights Drive-in movie to watch R rated movies - Like Confessions of a Window Washer (LOL) Cruised Sunrise Mall and of course, who could not forget Douglas Blvd Jack-in-The-Box in Roseville – We hardly ever went inside because the parking lot was where all the action was! That’s where a lot of other students and young adults hung out and Wild & Crazy stuff happened!

 We also went cruising for late night parties at Folsom lake or the Curve - I believe it was at Vineyard Rd & Crowder Lane or we would end up at some unknown person’s house that we heard about and just showed up at and that also meant drinking alcohol and smoking something, getting the munchies etc. We listened to the best music ever made back then - (Train-kept-a-rolling-all-night-long, Train-kept-a… Oh sorry, I got swept back into the cool 70’s man!

Well, anyways, we got this idea to go search for baby ducklings at the nearby Roseville’s City waste water treatment facility on Booth Road, located about a block away from their house.  We were going to raise the baby ducklings at Curt and Tal’s house and either sell them or eat them? Just kidding! The ducks were going to be our pets. You know like, Give the duckies some cool pet names like Disco Duck or Waddle Boy and teach-em tricks and stuff. They would have a good life and eat the best Duck food money could buy or at least whatever we could afford and was on sale – which also depended on how many empty soda bottles we cashed in that week. We would spoil them with home grown garden veggies & love.

My Friend Ned's Photo

FYI - The Roseville Waste Water Treatment Facility is where all the peoples Sewage from Roseville, Rocklin, Loomis and a few other small towns’ go to for treatment.

One night we decided to hop the fence at the one evaporation Pond at the time (It’s now filled in and grass grows very well there!) and search for baby duckies in little patches of bushes all along the pond. 

 

We had flashlights to help us see and we had to be very very quiet. Like Elmer Fudd when he’s “Wookin for Wabbits” Shhhh! And I believe I remember we almost caught a few. 

 

Then I guess word traveled quickly around the pond and we ended up not seeing any signs of ducky’s after that.

The excitement of possibly catching one as we got closer to each bush was the “Thrill of it All” perhaps, or was it? But wait! - There’s more! - The story doesn’t end here, read on!

On one side of the pond there was a creek separated by a chain link fence named Dry Creek and has lots of wilderness areas where Muskrats, Beavers, Raccoon’s, Ducks, and Egrets that look like Cranes etc. all co-exist and eat berries and nuts and or hunt for small fish and other amphibious creatures like crawdads to munch on. Bigger fish like Salmon migrate up this creek during spawning season each year.

As we walked down each side of the pond, we would whisper to each other to be quiet! And then… I think it was me who first spotted something moving about 100 feet in the distance but it was way too dark to see what it was. “Hey! What’s that!?” I blurted out! - “I think it’s moving towards us!?” “What is it?” someone else asked. Was it a Bird? A Plane? Or maybe it’s a Cat? – Heeere Kitty-Kitty.

“HURRY! – WHO HAS THE FLASHLIGHT!” --- I see this black thing coming towards me, while someone shines the flashlight towards whatever it was, still not sure what it could be and then I see a white patch “Oooooh SH---T! - ITS-A-SKUNK!”

 

Someone didn’t believe me at first and said I was joking (which I do a lot) but I wasn’t joking this time.

Then I hear someone else yell “SKUNK!” and they all took off! But Umwa - at that split second in time, went into flight or fright panic mode, and I just stood there watching this skunk coming towards me for some unexplained reason, 

 

but when I heard another person yell out loud once again “SKUNK!”  I was instantly brought back to reality. 

Just then the skunk started moving even faster and I just happened to be the closest.

(dam that fright mode cost me big time) and I believe, I became it’s locked-on target because just then, I see this little varmint turn it’s self around and is Literally running backwards, straight at me! Getting ready to unleash its stink bomb! – 

 

I had never personally witnessed that before and I was like - What the? As the Skunk Lifted its tail even higher and that’s when I did the Hokey-Pokey and quickly turned myself around as well! 

(I guess High School square dance class came in Handy after all? – Anyways, I started running as fast as I could!  Kind of – Sort of not really knowing which direction I was going! But I did know, I did NOT want to get sprayed by this Ass-Backwards thing chasing me!

 

I yelled “RUN-RUN!!!”  The four of us are running towards the fence near the gate to climb the heck out of there! (In-The –Dark) and kind of – remember hearing screaming! - Well – maybe it was only me screaming --- 

 

I was running but trying to look back at the same time (In the Dark) to see where this freakin Mad-Max Skunk was and if it was gaining on us! - I sure as heck did not want to be sprayed, or do they squirt it at you? Either way even though I was like 20 feet or so behind all the others, I Somehow, was able to catch up to Curt, as we were both now running side by side in the dark. Our adrenaline levels were in overdrive I tell you!

Now I’m trying to look back with my eye balls straining to my right and not really looking ahead as me and Curt were ---Running --- Towards who knows where? (IN THE DARK) and then suddenly… we both run into a huge mountain of….??? It came out of No-where,  And we both instantly stop. WHAT THE? - WHATS-HAPPENING? - WHAT IS THIS?  This big hill of something just happened to appear in front of us both and we ran right into it? I think I was stuck almost up to my knees! I don’t remember how bad Curt was stuck but I do remember all of a sudden I couldn’t move.

So apparently, all of the sewage solids (Hint Hint) are scraped off before the rest of the sewage is treated and this fenced off pond area is where they pile the Excrement into large piles inside a fenced off area and locked gate, you know, health safety issue thingy.

Oh ya back to the story!

Aaaand Action!

I don’t know how deep Curt was stuck, but I was now instantly stuck Knee deep and I can’t move – At first I’m thinking what the hell is this stuff? And why is it so mushy and thick? – And, I can’t move?

 One quick sniff test, told me exactly what it was. “OHHHH SHEEET!” Literally – It was something like you would see in a comedy movie but this was for reals S@#!T - Mixed with who knows what else!? - Amazing how during that fright or flight thing - In flight mode, your mind can process Q & A stuff so quickly to yourself ? – And also just then my mind quickly remembered – OH YA! – “SKUNK!!!! - WHERE’S THE SKUNK!” I yelled out! - While my two brothers and Curt’s brother Tal, are already climbing the fence!

Luckily, the Skunk retreated and disappeared – because me and Curt were sitting ducks! - How Ironic is that right?

Me and Curt would have definitely got it good!

Either way we still got Stunked!

 I can still picture in my mind thinking - That skunk and all those other critters, Raccoon’s, Rabbit’s, Beaver’s and Ducks, all laughing at us that night. The “Wild Ones” high fiving each other! - Lifting that skunk up on their shoulders as their Hero and stuff…. Laughing, Celebrating and Chanting all through the night with their Victory Party against… The Humans!

Who’s complaining? I have come to accept “The Agony of Defeat” from that night, a long time ago. Well kind-a Sort-of.

I was 14 years old – and who doesn’t forget running for your life for the very first time! And let’s just leave it at that.

Oh ya, So, I had to somehow get unstuck without using my hands and I started twisting and turning and slowly got myself out. I don’t remember much after that exact moment back then, other than Curt didn’t go as deep into the $!%T as me and was able to get himself out sooner.

I had to get Un-STUNK ASAP! – I remember thinking… How, am I going to clean this crap off my shoes and also get the smell out? - Those white tennis shoes were the only pair that I had back then (we didn’t have much money back in those days) and I knew my dad would be pissed if he had to buy me another pair because I didn’t watch where I was going, while being chased, no make that, hunted down by a killer Skunk! (I don’t think he would have bought that?)

So that night, I had to scrub and scrub with dish detergent and douse them repeatedly with Listerine (LOL) So I could wear them to school the following Monday.

I think I did a good job because I didn’t notice any strange looks or see any classmates or teachers sniffing the air during class that day at school. I believe I eventually ended up getting new shoes later because even though the smell was gone, the fact was, my shoes were white and you could still see smudges of brown stains that just would not come out? I believe I got some Denio’s Auction Specials!

Looking back on it all now… I realized how lucky I was, and very thankful I didn’t end up face planting.

Well, That’s – That

– Oh, one more thing - here is a related little 

footnote –

Another friend/Classmate from Dry Creek School and Roseville High school, named Edward and his family and I believe his Aunt and uncle’s family owned and lived in houses on property right next to that Roseville Treatment facility and one year the two families got a notice that the treatment facility was expanding and the city of Roseville was now going to need their property and did the eminent domain thing. I don’t know how it all transpired but Edward’s family had a house moving company dissect their home into like four? Sections and each section was moved to another location nearby and put back together. They did a masterful job. I had never heard of or seen that done before and was amazed that was even possible back then. 

 

Author – Tom Stover

Re-edited Oct 11, 2025

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