We grew up poor. We had most essentials but shoes were not as essential as they are now. I looked out one day at the carpet of lush green grass and thought to myself. Wouldn't you just love to feel that green grass under you feet again. Yep I sure would. The first thing I did wrong was step outside the door barefoot because right outside the door the ground is covered with gravel. Folks, not only does my mind not work well anymore but my feet never will work well again after stepping down in that hard gravel. I wanted to wiggle my toes in that grass so bad that I just went on through the gravel to get to it. STUPID!!! And when my poor feet hit the grass what should I step in on but a dad burned sharp rock. OOOHHH my Gosh that hurt. No other open doors to get back in the house so here I go back through the gravel to get inside. I can relate to anyone who says, OH my poor aching feet by golly.
I said all that to come to this! We went bare foot all summer when we were growing up. We had a pair of Church Shoes that were white always white. When school started we got a pair of School shoes which were always black. If you are thinkin' why just white or black. Well I'll tell ya" I don't really know. Anyway the rest of the time we were barefoot. Yep, even in the winter. And we were not always sick and snotty nosed either. NOPE, We were tough. Which brings me to the rest of the story.
Brenda and I asked one day if we could walk over to Hall Parks' Store. We each had a nickle to spend. Now that would buy a lot of candy. Penny candy to be exact. Hall would take a sack and put his big dirty hand, dirty in Not clean, down in that candy box and fill up that little sack and we would be on our way. Boy howdy now we were in hog heaven. On the way back one day we decided to wade the ditches. That ol' dirt road, no gravel, just dirt, was kinda hot on our feet even if they were toughened to the consistency of leather. It was a dry summer and not much water in the ditch but it was pleasantly muddy. Only thing was that people littered and there was lots of thingies in that ditch. We got interested in what we might find so we just decided to sit down there for a spell and explore. We would scoot along on our butts a ways and stop a bit. All this time we were dragging our candy sacks along in that muck. That candy was not wrapped nice and neat the way it is now. Just a layin' there in the sacks which were gettin' soggy. The bottoms finally drug outta them sacks and we strung our candy for a ways before we noticed it. I started to reach in to my sack and all that I came up with was air. Brenda's was the same. "BBRREENNDDAA, look! The candys gone." We looked and There was some of it behind us. So we turned around and started scootin the other way pickin up candy as we went. We were putting it in our mouths, no pockets and we sure wadna gonna waste that candy. No sireee, we were gonna eat ever last bite of it.
When we figured we had it all we got back on the road and happily skipped along with our mouth's bulging like a squirrel with his jaws full of hicker'nuts. We couldn't talk our mouth's were too full.
I looked over at Brenda and saw somethin' hanging out of her mouth and it was wigglin at the end. "Brenda what is that"? When I said that a bunch of my candy came out and landed on the road which I proceeded to pick up and put back in my mouth. Oh my I can feel the grit in my teeth as I speak. YUKKY. It wasn't yukky then though. No tellin when we'd get another nickel. But back to Brenda. I got up close to her and saw that a big ol red worm was danglin outta her mouth. "BREEENDA, spit it out", there went my candy on the dirt again. "NOOO CLLLYYYDDDEEENNNEEE WHY?" And there went her candy on the dirt. But that fat ol red worm was still a hanging there. I slapped at it to get it off her mouth and she thought I was hittin her and she slapped me back. Down we went back in the mucky ditch just a clawin and a scratchin' like two wild cats. "Brenda quit!" "You quit first". "Brenda you've got a worm in your mouth!" And by golly she did. Half of one anyhow. "OH GOOD GRIEF Clydene, you made me spit my candy out." " Well heck fire Brenda I spit mine out too." We looked at each other and there we were in all our glory, black muck all over us, and a worm hangin outta Brenda's mouth .We got so tickled we forgot about that candy and after ridding Brenda of the worm we started running home. We had a ball that day even if we fought like tigers and never did get to eat all our candy. And our feet were fine, At least they were after we got them clean. A few scratches didn't bother us. And it was Ok for us to get mucky. They'll clean up my Daddy said. The dirt'll come off but they'll never have these days again. He was so right. Those days are gone and I'm so blessed that I could enjoy them so much. Also blessed that We didn't have persnikety Parents. Such fond memories that I can relive in my memory. I just can't walk outside with such ease anymore. DURN IT ANYWAY!!!
