...Another creek story, probably why I was fascinated by them when I got older.
There is one not too far away from where I am living, now, and I often think of buying some boots and walking into it...but...times have changed since I was little...if I walked into the creek now, I would probably die a few weeks later from some obscure disease...so I just briefly look at it as I drive by. When I was little, we lived in a lower middle class place...our house was on the edge of a creek. I was very young, maybe 4 or 5 years old...I recall that I was not yet in Kindergarten...and I would climb up the wood fence, and get into the creek. I would catch crawdads...I learned to grab them just behind the head...but I let them go...I didn't know that you could eat them. Once, I was VERY PROUD when I carried a bucket full of bullfrogs back over the fence, and showed them to my Mother. She grabbed the bucket, and dumped them back over the fence, as I jumped up and down and cried...I still...to this day...have NO IDEA of what I was going to do with them...I didn't want to eat them...I guess that my little mind thought that I could have 23 bullfrogs as pets...
...But, one winter, it was raining very hard for several days, and my parents were getting worried. My friends and I would put on thick, yellow, rain gear and go out and play, and we saw no problem. It was quiet in my house, my Mother wouldn't say much. One day, I looked out the back door, and smiled...I saw the older, next door boy, sitting on the fence. I had no idea of romance at the time...I just liked it when he would join our games. So, I put on my rain gear, and went out, and climbed up the fence, and sat with him. I was astonished when I looked down...the creek...was now a RIVER!!! We didn't talk much...the water kept rising, and then my mother yelled at me to come back in. I did, and she handed me a small suitcase, and said, "Pack up your toys." I sat for a while...I had a lot of toys...and tried different ways to pack them...and I finally just placed my favorite dolls and a few other items in the suitcase. I was then hauled out...my Father came home, and we went to a motel!!! I was a bit excited, that was the first time I recall being in such a place...and we got to walk, in the rain;, to a place and eat! I liked being asked what I wanted to eat, and get it. I ate a LOT of fish. We stayed there for three days, and then came back home.
...It was horrible...the floor of our house was covered in mud. It was a very 'starter' house, it had been built right after WW II...the floors were concrete...and like all of the other neighbors...my Father used a hose to get the mud out...
The walls were somehow cleaned, and we moved back in. To this day, I can't figure out how the walls could be cleaned...wouldn't the mildew and such destroy them? My parents had placed the rest of my toys on the top of furniture, so I just lost a few.
...So, now days...when I see videos of the floods that are going on...I stop, and think about what those people are going through...
...Please send them our prayers....
