Monday, October 25, 2010

WADING THE DITCHES

10-24-10...WADING THE DITCHES

Brenda and I waded the ditches when it rained in the summer. But we only waded after we got permission from our Mama's so they could watch us closely. Well usually we got permission first. This one day both our Mama's were busy so we decided not to bother them and go ahead. MISTAKE BIG TIME! We got in the ditch in front of my house. The ditch went all the way to the end of our (well I don't know what it was called then) block which was a lot farther than we really meant to go. Then we got out and went to the other side of the road. I like to think that we really thought this led back home, but I'm not sure we were thinking at all. Our Mama's never let us go that far and they certainly wouldn't have let us sit down in the ditch. The ditches were very deep and it had rained a lot so they were half full and the water just gushed out the end of the tile. We liked that. “Wow Brenda, ain't this fun”? “Yep sure is”! We didn't have any idea how far from home we were but we did know not to talk to strangers. An old man walked by right then and though he knew who we were we didn't know him. “Hey Girls”. “Brenda don't answer him.”

“ No I wont” she said. “Girls, you better get out of there. Do your Mama's know where you are”? “Of course they do” I said. “Don't talk to him Clydene” Brenda said. But he kept standing there. He was very old we thought and we can outrun him if we have to. “Girls, come on now there might be snakes in there”. “Brenda he's lying to get us out so he can get hold of us, just sit still till' he goes away”. He stood there for what seemed like an eternity to us then walked on. We Thought! “Brenda He's gone come on lets go home”. I raised up to look and there he was looking down at me. Brenda was pushing on me to hurry and all at once she screamed the loudest scream I've ever heard and fairly pushed me so hard my face hit into the bank of the ditch and buried up in slimy mud! “Sputter, Sputter, Gurgle, BRRREEENNNDDDAAA stop it that man is there”. “CCCLLLYYYDDDEEENNNEEE, there's a snake crawling on my foot”! “I don't care Brenda get back down before he gets me”. “NOOOOOOO! It'll bite me”! The old man was sitting on a rock where I suppose he was planning to watch us till our Mama's got there. And he knew they would be looking for us. He knew us and he knew our Parents. He was very old I guess because he tried to jump up when Brenda hollered snake and couldn't get up very fast but he too started hollering for someone to help. I thought he was a crazy little girl killer or something so I sure wasn't getting out of that ditch. NO WAY NO HOW!!! I said “Brenda get back down in there and I'll get that snake and throw it out at that ol' man. After it bites him then we will run home and get our Mama's”. I

I pushed her down and reached down to get the snake. Heck that was better'n' facing that crazy old man. “Where is it Brenda”? I reached down in the water and grabbed A LONG STICK! “Brenda you nut, it's just a stick”. I was actually mad that it wasn't a snake. Wouldn't do no good to throw a stick at him now would it? Poor old man. I'll bet he was wishing right then that he had just walked right on by them crazy kids Anyway you probably know the rest of the story but I'm a gonna tell you anyway. Our Mama's had followed the screams and hollering right to us. They sat our Brothers down for the old man to watch.( Mama don't set them down there. That's a crazy ol' kid killer) and pulled us outta' that ditch likity'split'! They were so happy we were OK, kissin' and huggin' and cryin' that we thought they would forget the hide tanning. Well they sure didn't forget. No siree. We got it good when we got home. We knew we deserved it too. And we were so glad to see our Mama's that day we woulda' almost asked for a tannin'. Well almost. If we hadenta' got all those tannings we wouldn't have been as loved as we were. NOPE, WORLD'S GREATEST PARENTS. We sure enough had that!!!!