" Mud puddles and Kids"

Many years ago, I lived in a house close to a vacant lot and it was located on a downhill slope. One day I heard a number of children

Laughing and hollering and having a fun time. It had rained for several day days and the ground was wet and muddy. The laughter had went on for the longest time, so I decided to see what was going on.

I approached the area and found maybe seven or eight children, each covered with mud from head to toe!  I ask one of the older girls, well I think it was a girl, what are you doing?  She replied, we are making our skin beautiful.  “What, I ask,” you don’t look very beautiful to me!  She said: that comes later.  Apparently they had overheard some women talking about facials and mud baths.

They all wore clothing, but it was hard to tell what it was, you couldn’t tell where skin or clothing began or ended.  I stood there and watches as they through mud at each other, one little girl or boy, was standing there crying as he or she picked up a handful of mud and splattered another kid with it, then he or she laughed and laughed. I just stood there wishing that I could join them. 

Mud and kids have been one thing that has always went together since earth, rain and kids have been around. This made me thing of a time as a teenager, I was going to escort a young & pretty girl, to a dance. We were about to cross a muddy street and she couldn’t get across without getting her feet and shoes dirty. So as a gentleman would, I picked her up to carry her to the other side. About half way across, my feet and legs separated and causing me to set down in the center of a very muddy street. She just sat there, on top of me and laughed and laughed. We had to return to her home, and find something for me to wear and get myself cleaned up.

Another time, coming home from work, my car got stuck in the mud and it was late in the night. I had to jack up the car to put tire chains on the tires and that made me muddier than the mud itself. Having finished with the chains, now I couldn’t get into the car being so muddy, had to strip off all my clothing and drive the rest of the way home, naked. My clothing was so covered in mud, I had to put it in the trunk of the car.

 Arriving at home. The family was still awake, and I had to get someone to bring me something to put on, in order to get into the house and take a bath.

You can believe me when I say, it is better to play in the mud as a child than to find yourself in Mud trouble.

 

By; Ben R.

June 2014