Underground

This story in the Nashville Tennessean, about two boys who got lost in a Hamilton County cave, made me shudder. My native middle Tennessee is a caver's paradise, but in a cave near Sparta, Tenn., I once had a experience so traumatic that I couldn't even think about caves for years after, much less explore them. I was with experienced cavers that day, but I was firmly convinced we were lost and doomed. I think my experienced caver friends were, too. Or maybe they were just trying to scare me.

After years of recovery, I can now go into caves. But they need to have paved walkways and colored lights, like Wisconsin's own Cave of the Mounds, which is lovely, even though its formations can't hold a candle -- pardon the expression -- to those of Tennessee limestone caves like the one that nearly killed me.