ation!
  When Joe Cota was a toddler he was playing around the Flume bridge next to the house when he slipped and fell into the Flume. As he floated passed his father downstream, Gonzalo reached down, grabbed Joe by his diapers, and plucked him sopping wet from the water. Joe was coughing and sputtering, but was ok.
  My mind went back to the early 50's when I used to hunt jackrabbits in the Lake Jennings area before it was a lake, walking dangerously on the top of the large redwood Flume pipe hunting as I walked. You had to be very careful to watch for the steel bars wrapped around the tube about every four feet because some of the turnbuckles to tighten the bars around the tube would be at the top and easy to trip over.
  There were a number of leaks in the old redwood tube causing good grass to grow for the rabbits to eat. There were hundreds of them; at times they ran together in large groups. I can still see the early morning sunlight shining an amber color through their tall ears as they ran in a wide sweeping circle through the area of what is now Lake Jennings.
  The tube was built high on wooden stilts and allowed a commanding view to all the wildlife. I mentioned that there were huge rattlesnakes along the flume also looking for rabbits to eat. Joe and I both wondered what it would be like to walk that whole distance everyday of the work-week, since these days I have trouble just getting the trash out before the trash man arrives. We finished the evening with some wonderful company and some great reflections of our good times in Lakeside.
  I would like to invite you to visit the excellent Barona Indian Museum to view the magnificent ten foot rattlesnake preserved in a glass case within the museum to get an idea of how large these reptiles can get in the area surrounding Lakeside, enjoy!  Regis

The Cota family Gonzalo, Maria, Josi, Rosende, Antonio and Aunt Carmen at the Section House on the flume at Chocolate Summit in 1924.

  Sheila, my wife, and I recently sat down to a delicious Lenten fish dinner, cooked up at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church by the Knights of Columbus. We arrived early enough to be sure to get a seat. A number of others began arriving when I noticed Joe and Minnie Cota arriving with Dave and Ann Salas. We waved to them to join us since the group of them, being old timers in Lakeside, is always a joy to chat with about the "good old days."
  Dave and Ann Salas, also raised in the area, are both neighbors and school chums of ours from Grossmont High. Joe sat across the table from me and we immediately began story telling together. Both Dave and Ann were within earshot of us and through our story telling of the old days around town, Dave discovered that he was related to Joe through marriage. Small world I thought!
  Joe mentioned to that his father, Gonzalo Cota, was a flume walker. "A flume walker?" I asked.  "What in the world is a flume walker?" He went on to explain that his job within the community was to walk the length of the old flume running from El Monte Park to Old Highway 80 every day. Part of it was open flume and part was an enclosed large redwood tube. He did this for years. His job was to watch for breaks or leaks developing within the system. He walked the length two or three times a day, depending how he felt on any given day.
  The weather in those years seemed to be much cooler for whatever reason, and on occasion, the weather would become freezing cold and the water flowing in the Flume would completely freeze over. Then the kids would climb into the Flume and slide on top of the ice. Then in the summer time they would chase the water snakes that were looking for small frogs in the Flume. Great recre-