It was a wet, showery Monday morning and it was enjoyed. After getting flowers, veggies and grass planted last week, the rains were welcomed. Maybe the old saying “April Showers brings May Flowers” should be changed this year to “May Showers bring May Flowers.”
I recalled rains received while a youngster on my folk’s farm. Those rains would often fill the ponds, ditches, draws and creeks. I couldn’t wait until the rains stopped and the sun came out as it meant fun times running down into the home pasture, shedding my shoes and wading into the water-filled ditches. I could feel the mud getting in between my toes. A stick was sometimes used as a walking stick and as an instrument to splash the water around. As the ditches led up towards the pond, the walk took me onto the pond dam. Stones and clods were found and thrown into the filled pond. On one side of the pond was a large water puddle where my sister and I would often collect clay mud in a bucket to bring into the driveway. Here our creative talents took over and we molded plates, bowls and cups out of the mud. We’d then place our creations on a tray and put it on the sidewalk to dry. We didn’t care how muddy we got and it was our mother that taught us this art work, so she never seemed to mind either.
Sometimes on our walks down into the pasture after the rains, our dog, Blondie Sue, would go with us and wade into the water. She enjoyed it too and it was fun watching her, until she would come out of the water, travel over to my sister and me and then begin to shake off the water onto us.
We’d create floating boats using the big leaves off our Catalpa tree, and send them down the stream toward the pond. It would be a race to see whose leaves would make it to the pond first.
These fun times seems so simple today, but it was using our imagination. Believe it or not, as an adult, I’ve even been known to relive these times, after a big rain and take a memory walk into a pasture and wade in the filled ditches.
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