Growing Up Country
Where every dirt track leads to a story worth telling
The first days of summer vacation are always the best. Wakin’ up to a warm sunny day, I don’t think of school at all. Soon as that bell rings on the last day of school, I’m free. I hate school. Sittin’ still is hard. Real hard. But summer? Summer’s all about roamin’ all day. Stayin’ up late. Layin’ on the grass, starin’ at the Milky Way, wonderin’ how far the sky goes on for. Listenin’ to the sounds of crickets. That’s what life is about to me. All that school stuff never helped me catch a frog. No sir.
Our pastures and woods give me plenty room for roamin’, they seem to go on forever. I ain’t explored every twist and turn of the creek bed, but today I’ll cover some more. ‘Cept if somethin’ else catches my eye.
Fishin’ might be somethin’. My fishin’ pole is just a bamboo stick with some string, a bob, and a hook. My grandfather has a real fishin’ rod with a reel and everythin’. He won’t let me use it though. I don’t really care. I don’t care if I catch fish or not. I just like to sit on the creek bed with my hook in the water and think about things.
I don’t plan what I’m thinkin’ about. Things just come in my head. Sometimes I don’t think about nuthin. I just sit listenin’ to the water and the rustlin’ of the leaves and critters in the weeds.
We got snakes though. Copperheads and black snakes. They don’t worry me as long as my dog Spot is around. Spot sits beside me watchin’ too, his ears perk up once in a while. If anythin’ comes after me I know he’ll protect me. Snakes don’t stand a chance with Spot. If he sees a snake I run out of his way though. The first time I saw Spot kill a snake I got snake blood all over me. When he gets a snake in his jaws he shakes his head back and forth so fast, it’s all a blur. The snake whips back and forth as he tears it apart, slingin’ snake blood everywhere.
It ain’t just snakes to watch out for. Last year, I come up on some poison oak and got it all up my arms. I itched, I scratched. It itched in more places. I scratched. Soon it’s everywhere. I don’t see my Mom often so by the time she sees me I’m red and bumpy all over. It’s awful. I cain’t sleep at night and I miss some of my summer days.
Weren’t all bad though. A thunder storm started while I was sittin’ on the back porch scratchin’. Lightenin’ kept sparkin’ through the sky and thunder shook the porch. The rain hittin’ the tin roof is nearly loud as the booming thunder. That’s fun even if I cain’t play in it.
I ain’t supposed to scratch but what they ‘pect you to do. It itches damn it. I’m not supposed to cuss either. But I do when nobody can hear me. I don’t know why I cain’t cuss. Everybody else does. Cept my Mom of course. If she heard me, she’d make me get a switch and swat me across my legs a few times. It don’t hurt though. It just makes me feel bad that I disappoint her.
My grandfather can cuss best. He says the best cuss words I know. You can tell when he’s really mad cause he uses most all of ‘em.
One time I was stayin’ with Watt and Momma — that’s what I call my grandparents ’cause that’s what I hear ’em called most times, ‘cept Watt calls Momma ‘Ann Lee.’ Anyway, I was stayin’ with them and Watt was workin’ on the kitchen sink. I think the drain was clogged. Watt’s a big man so he has trouble gettin’ under the sink. It’s funny seein’ him half layin’ half sittin’ on the floor tryin’ to reach things. He has a big pot under the sink drain to catch any water spills.
Momma comes into the kitchen, goes to the sink an’ starts washin’ her hands. Watt has the drain pipes off so all that water comes splashin’ down into the pot.
“Damn it Ann Lee, can’t you see I’m working on the sink?”
“Oh, I’m sorry” Momma says and turns off the water.
“You got water everywhere and filled up the pot.”
“Oh, I’ll empty it. Let me get to it.”
Like I told you, Watt is a big man, so he has to twist out of her way and she lifts the pot full of water from under the sink. She stands with the pot of water, and when you got a kitchen pot full of water to get rid of, what do you do? Pour it down the sink of course. And she did.
Every drop of that water went straight to the floor right where Watt was sittin’. Everythin’ under the sink was wet. Especially Watt. His face turned red as a beet, and he used all the cuss words I ever heard, and I even learnt some new ones.
Damn that was fun to see and hear!
As I sit here years later, I realize how much those simple moments mean to me. They shaped who I am today. They are memories that will forever bring a smile to my face and remind me of the simple joys of growin’ up country .
