[KevinFromTexas]

Yeah, my brother and I used to go down there with our dad and his friends, or sometimes just our dad and us. We used to find change (coins) sometimes silver coins, jewelery every once in a while and other metal pieces. We called it "creeking". We would build these screens to sift the stuff on the bottom of the creek. We would take 2x4s and build a box frame and stretch metal mesh over it. Then we'd go down to the creek after a good rain. You'd find a spot where rocks and metal debris had piled up. You wouldn't believe it, but the creek is FULL of metal. Nails, coins, nuts and bolts pieces of pipe and just about everything you can think of. We'd get into those spots where there was a small drop off or a hole and then shovel it into the screen. You'd sift it to get out the small rocks and sand and throw out the bigger stuff. We went down there one day and my brother found an old pocket watch. I found a Clubhouse Saloon token from the 1800s that my dad's friend immediately offered to buy from me for $200. I didn't sell it, and still have it. Most of the time we just found tons of change.

The creek is also full of old brick that used to pave the streets in downtown Austin. There's also brick in there from old buildings that had been demolished years ago and the material either washed in there during floods or was simply dumped there. My dad collected a lot of the brick and used it for landscaping around the yard, and we even repaved our driveway with it 20 years ago. It's kind of sad now. I'm glad that the creek will be a useful piece of Austin's urban core now, but I will miss being able to go down there to kneel in the creek and find those goodies.

The creek always flooded. Back in 1981 there was that big Memorial Day flood where 13 people died in Austin. Waller Creek overflowed its banks and even flooded out a car dealership along its banks. Some of those cars actually washed into the creek and were covered up. Believe it or not, some of those cars are still there. I can remember a few times walking the dry creek bed near the police station and walking right over the roof of a 1980s car. Pretty crazy. There's also spots where the containment walls along the creek have been washed out. I'm talking 10 foot high sections of thick concrete barrier wall that had been washed out from the floods.

And yeah, we saw plenty of nastiness in the creek like homeless people bathing in the creek. We saw a lot of them sleeping and every once in while would come across their uh, droppings. Pretty gross.

But I have a lot of good memories of wandering through the creek. I've walked every foot of it from Cesar Chavez to at least 15th Street.