L.A. RIVER NEAR LOS FELIZ AREA AND GRIFFITH PARK

As boys we used to ride our bicycles into the L.A. River and ride down the slopes and do jumps because it was relatively safe unless accosted by a hobo or a gang or something like that. It has a sloping cement wall on either side of the man made storm drain created so more people didn't die in flash floods in the Los Angeles area. From Glendale where I lived then as a boy storm drains ran all the way from Brand Blvd. to the L.A. River. So, on a dry summer day when we were all bored riding our bikes in the L.A. River which is usually mostly dry in the summers we got the bright Idea to lift up the grate on a storm drain big enough for us to walk up and we walked from the L.A. River up to Brand Blvd. underground in the storm drains. I likely was somewhere between 11 and 13 when we did this. We could hear the traffic of Brand Blvd. which was then where all the theaters we watched movies at on Fridays nights and Saturdays were then.  the (Alex theater was the best in Town) So, it was sort of an amazing experience of us all daring each other to walk further and further and luckily we didn't run into any raccoons or rats that might have spoiled our days adventures. This would have been between about 1958 and 1962 in Glendale, California. We hiked up as far as brand Blvd. Which was a long way from the L.A. River. But, I was very relieved when we got back to the L.A. River and our bicycles because it was pretty dark in that storm drain even though it was big enough for us to stand up in as boys.