Digging to China

When I was little I had a large portion of the back yard dedicated to my enjoyment. The  back half of the yard was dirt with some citrus trees and a homemade tree fort. Half of that half was just plain dirt and for half of the year that half was turned into a garden. At the very back of the yard, mostly in the garden half, I had a spot of dirt that was all mine. How did I utilize that plot? I did the typical little boy thing and dug a hole.

The hole was about three feet in diameter and a couple feet deep. It served for years as one of my favorite play places. That hole was a construction site, the grand canyon, a fox hole, bunker, hiding place, sandbox, swimming pool (when it rained), and food source (I used to eat dirt). One day there was a man over at our house and he asked me about my dirt hole. I told him about how special my hole was. I think I also revealed my ultimate goal of turning it into an underground secret hideout room.

He said, "it looks like you're digging a hole to china."
As a little kid I was like, "What?"
He then gave me a lesson in geography, "If you dig all the way through the earth you'll end up in china!"
I said, "oh" and from then on when people asked about my hole I told them about china. As a note, I've since discovered that if I had made it all the way through the earth then I would have ended up in the ocean or Australia. I also found out later that the earth is not solid the whole way through. Boy am I glad I didn't make a volcano in our back yard.