Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – Building a Pond and the Leaky Tin Bathtub!
Here is the Saturday Night – time for some Genealogy Fun! Assignment from Randy Seaver at http://www.geneamusings.com/
“We all have childhood memories, but if you’re like me, you’re concentrating on getting the family history of your parents and earlier generations. Let’s think about ourselves here.
Here’s your mission if you want to accept it …
1. What is one of your most vivid childhood memories? Was it family, friends, places, events, or just plain fun?
2) Tell us about it in a comment to this post, a Comment or Note on Facebook, or in a blog post of your own.”
Building a Pond in the Pasture and the Leaky Tin Bathtub!
by Sherry Stocking Kline
October 4th, 2009
And there was the time we kids built a pond in my folk’s pasture.
We weren’t supposed to. We weren’t even supposed to be home from school.
My Nephews Were Out of School With Colds
But my nephews (who were nearly my age) had stayed home sick with colds, and so, because they were coming to visit, my mom allowed me to stay home from school, too.
Since it was a mild spring day following several days of rainy weather and since we weren’t very old we headed outdoors as fast as we could and headed for the pasture to see if we could find some water.
We had some pretty deep buffalo wallows in our pasture when I was growing up, and they were a constant source of tadpoles and good place to wade after a rain.
We were in luck that day, the buffalo wallows were full and spring rains had filled the little creeks till we were wading in water that was nearly up to our (four, six and eight-year-old-high) knees.
Soon We Were In Water Over Our Knees
But we wanted it deeper! So we grabbed tree limbs, branches, old boards, and whatever else we could, and dammed up the creek. Awesome, pretty soon we were wading in water over our knees. One of us scrambled back up to the house, and drug back an old tin bathtub to be our makeshift boat.
We set the leaky old tin tub afloat and for quite awhile we took turns, using an old board for a paddle.
We Had a Lot of Fun Till…
We had our own little pond, and our own little boat (bathtub), in our own (huge) backyard. We were so happy. We were going to have fun forever.
We had a lot of fun that day.
Till we got caught. You know how sometimes when you were a kid your mom would be so annoyed she’d take a whack at your backside, and you’d get another one with each step she took and each word she said?
Well, let’s just say my mom was annoyed, and so was my nephew’s mom. We heard “I’ll never let you stay home from school again,” “you ought to have known better than that,” and “you kids could have drowned.”
I don’t think I ever did get to stay home from school like that again. But that day was a lot of fun even if I did have to sit kinda easy in the chair later that night.
Unfortunately, though I’m sure it was for our safety, our little makeshift dam was dismantled, and the Good Ship ‘Tin Tub’ never sailed again.
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Sherry,
Awww, what a fun time. I had many a days like that with my cousins.
Awww, bless you for the comment! We had some wonderful times like that, and I just bless Randy for asking us to recall them! And you know what, if we do something like this every Saturday night, then copy and paste into a Word document, then one day we’ll have a whole notebook full of great memories! I’m looking forward to that! Have a blessed weekend!
Well you can come play over here. I have an old galvanized washtub on my back deck with a galvanized watering can tipped over it recycling the water back down into the tub. It is full of water plants but we could make some room for a pirate and a paddle.
Oh, Oh, my, your remark about the pirate set me off on another whole memory. Maybe I’ll have to add another! I sure do thank you for the comment and the visit! I had a great giggle imagining you and your family scattering crumbs on the table cloth! I think I have a similar memory (no train involved) rattling around in my head. I hope it pops up to the surface where I can enjoy it! (I kind of think it involves me, my children, and breadsticks or rolls at a restaurant).
I’ve seen the watering cans and washtub’s and love those. See, that’s what I need to do, see if I can resurrect that leaky (oh, well, that wouldn’t work, would it?) old tub!
And your pirate remark reminded me that we used to use an old binding machine (think that’s what it was) and it was our “ship”. Sat in the pasture with all the ‘retired’ and rusty machinery, and there was a place we called a galley, and you could climb up high and put up a flag (bandanna). I had forgotten about that. And sometimes, it was our covered wagon, too. Thank you for bringing back another memory!! Until the next SNGF!
This made me laugh – I can remember similar adventures and similar … ahh … consequences.
Oh, yeah, the consequences! Actually, I don’t regret the consequences one bit! Sometimes, when I did something I knew I shouldn’t, I felt guilty, learned from the ‘consequences,’ and didn’t do it again. But this was a little different. We weren’t actually doing something wrong, but I realized even then that they thought we might get hurt, or even, since the youngest was so young, drown. Many years later, when I was married, my young husband built a pond in that same place with a tractor and bull-dozer. (I guess I should have added that on to the end.) And crazy as it sounds, when we go out and go fishing I still want to climb in/on something and float around on that pond! But I’m too big for the tin tub (lol) and don’t have anything small enough for the pond! (yet) I may just have to amend my post!
That was a great story. I also remember those very expressive pops to the behind. LOL.. Those were the days, huh?
Thank you for visiting! Yes, when I mention those to my mom, she feels sooo guilty, but I only remember one time I got in trouble when I didn’t deserve it! And they apologized to me later. (I got blamed for things my nephews actually did do!)
Yes, those were wonderful days, or they seem like it now, don’t they? Now I take my granddaughters to the grocery store, and no matter what they do, I have to be careful not to give them a little learning swat, because you just never know! I took a quick look at your blog! Very impressive! I’ve bookmarked it to go back when I’ve got more time!