My Occasional River
Our yard flooded regularly. Whenever there was a particularly big rain storm, all the water from the fields that surrounded our house would drain through our yard to the little brook just past the weeping willow on the Drolls’ side of the fence. Our house, garage, and barn were all on hills with a valley between the house and the barn. It was this valley where the water flowed. If it rained enough we’d get a fast flowing stream with water as high as our waist in some places. It was always exciting to see how high or fast the water was flowing. I’m sure my mom was much less excited because when the river stopped and the water dried up, we’d find a path of gravel and debris in the yard. My parents tried to build a small wall to stop some of the debris from crossing the gravel driveway into the yard, but I think they were disappointed by the results.
The day I held my high school graduation party, it was raining and the yard was starting to flood. The party was held in a room in my dad’s warehouse (in the former barn). We had to build a bridge for my friends to cross out of pallets and scraps of wood. I know my family has pictures somewhere of some of the deeper and more severe floods, but all I have is a few of the flood from my graduation party (an example of one of our milder and smaller floods).
yay! I remember this and many more floods. Floods were my favorite. I liked to float down them on homemade rafts. Mom would get kind of mad at me for playing in the flood water sometimes. I guess that stuff can be pretty gross, but I didn’t notice! Good times.
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One year I was rafting in the yard (at that time it was prohibited) and I couldn’t stop myself before I got to the “end” (the wire fence that separated our yard from the Drolls’). I got a big gash between my fingers, and I was afraid to tell Mom, cuz I didn’t want to get in trouble. That evening I went to my first Women’s conference broadcast, and mom noticed I had some difficulty writing since my fingers were taped together. When she saw the cut, we left the church (maybe early) and went to the emergency room, where they glued it together, I think. Still have a little bitty scar… ;)