Kacie And The Legend Of Gravity Hill

Kacie absolutely loved the following story from my youth. I'll never forget how her face lit up when she first heard it and I knew that one day she would be drawn to Gravity Hill to see it for herself. It's just a simple little tale but let me give you some background information to make it a little more interesting.

Without a doubt, 1967 was the most exciting year of my life. I was 17, the world was in a complete state of turmoil, the hippie movement had reached it's peak, and the Beatles ruled the world. Teenagers lived for the now because there might not be a tomorrow. It was a time of experimentation and questioning of everything that our parents and authorites had taught us. Nothing captures the flavor of the times like the music of the sixties and especially the music of the summer of '67 which is referred to today by music historians as the "summer of love." John and Paul were gods. No other living person had as much influence on the thinking and actions of young people as they did. The Beatles personified the sixties. When Kacie was very young I exposed her to as much music of the sixties as possible with the hope of steering her away from the popular "music" of her day and I believe I had some influence.

The story begins. In early '67 an amazing story began cirulating around Woodlawn Senior High. It had to do with a stretch of road near Liberty Lake that defied the law of gravity. Like I said, life was exciting and anything seemed possible but I felt that this was just another school prank. But then, as more and more friends and classmates claimed to have been eye witnesses of this phenomenon, I just had to investigate. Most of the stories dealth with cars that were put in neutral and cruised up a hill. I heard several stories of people putting balls on the road and watching them roll up a hill. Let me stop here and give you directions to the spot. Travel west on Liberty Road just past Randallstown and take a right on Deer Park Rd. Go about four or five miles and take a left on Wards Chapel Rd. Wards Chapel twists and turns down a hill and bottoms out at a large flat area with parking on the right side. The stretch of road known as Gravity Hill begins just as the road ends its descent and flattens out. This is where I witnessed the impossible in the summer of '67. My friend stopped his car, put it in neutral and the car drifted up the hill. I took many people there that summer and everyone was shocked. Many times on hot summer evenings I would go there with friends and we would drink beer and watch our cars violate the law of gravity. It was great entertainment and there was aparently no logical explanation.

One year later, in the following summer, myself and two friends visited Gravity Hill with instruments and did a "scientific" investigation. We discovered a logical explanation but I wish we hadn't. It took away the magic. Last September, when we visited Kacie in Baltimore, I made a trip to Gravity Hill and was happy to see that it is totally unchanged from the time that I first visited there.

Kacie had me make her a detailed map so that she and Jeff could see it for themselves. It's not difficult to find but for some reason they couldn't locate it. When I visit the Hill in the future, I'll enjoy it even more because I have a Kacie memory attached to it.