When Tim and I were kids, we were drawn to any body of water, from Lake Erie to ponds to mud puddles. Since we didn’t get to the lake that much, that left ponds and mud puddles. I guess all boys like to play in mud puddles, and we were certainly no exception. One day when I was around 4 or 5, I played in a large mud puddle in a low spot in the field west of the house. Our mother was so horrified that she took a picture of me of the outcome! (See pic below). I vividly recall the one thing among others that attracted me to this big puddle was that there were a lot of green frogs in it and I wanted to catch one. Of course I had to go into the water, since the frogs weren’t about to come up to me and jump right into my hands. At least that was the alibi I used to assuage my mother’s anger when I tried to get back into the house afterward.

 

Tim and I always wanted a pond at our place (we still do). Whenever was asked our father if we could “build” a pond, he always said, “We’ll See”. We later leaned that when one of our parents said, “We’ll see”, that REALLY meant “NO”. They just didn’t want to put up with the hassle of us throwing a tantrum when they said “No” to anything so they just said that. “We’ll See” always caused an optimistic attitude in us because then we figured”, we’ll See”, was the same as “Yes”, but just not right at that instant! Of course, later on we realized that all their’ “Will See’s” never happened. Even now Tim and I would still like to “build a pond” on the farm. We haven’t yet which is probably due to us each thinking, “We’ll see”. The ironic thing about this was when I worked at the County Soil and Water District several years ago; I designed several ponds for other people! In addition, in those days the Federal government even paid for the large majority of the construction! Whenever I designed a pond and oversaw the construction, I secretly wished the pond was for FOR US! Alas, it was not to be.

 

Since we never got our own pond after years of “We’ll See’s”, Tim and I, when we were older and rode bikes, would go to other people’s ponds. One such pond was Burnham’s Pond. This was the location of the legendary “Cherry Bomb Incident” that you can read about in the story link at the end of this story.

Tim, Len Hoffmiester, and I had a lot of fun at this pond. When we were swimming, we would go about waist deep or more and walk along the muddy bottom and find clams. We could always tell our foot was on a clam as opposed to a rock because clams felt smooth. We usually went under the water and picked them up and had “clam fights”. It really hurt to get hit with a clam thrown at high speed. I don’t imagine the clam was none too happy at being used for a “clam fight” either!  The pond itself was the essence of dirty and disease ridden. A few times when were swimming in it, there was a dead lamb half in the water not to mention a whole lot of sheep manure both in and around the water. Things like that didn’t bother us. One time I cut my finger on an old rusty barrel that was lying in the water. It eventually got infected and I had to go to Dr. Blackann’s for “a shot of penicillin”. Now THAT bothered me! Whenever we went swimming with Len, he would hold us under water till we almost drown! Since he was much older than we were, (2 years in “kid time”, which is A LOT!), he had the strength to do it. He’s dead now, so I guess I could go swimming again in Burnham’s Pond and not have to worry about Len drowning me. But then again, there’s the rusty barrel, lamb manure, possible dead lamb(s) and the filthy water! Well, on the other hand it might be fun just to feel for clams and not be hit by one!

 

Another pond we hung out at was Crawley’s Pond, which was just down the road from us at the top of the hill. We didn’t spend nearly as much time there as we did at Burnham’s Pond. I don’t recall us ever going swimming in Crawley’s Pond. I suppose the main reason was the water wasn’t dirty enough for us and there were no dead lambs in it. The main thing we did there was fishing. One notorious incident I remember here was when Tim and I were fishing; I was using an expensive fishing rod my grandfather Sommers had given me. The reel kept getting “backlash” with the nylon fishing line around it until it finally was hopelessly tangled so much, I couldn’t unwind the line. I got so enraged that I threw the fishing rod into the pond! After that, I had to use a bamboo rod which was as bad as using a stick!

 

Another place where we were in “Pond Paradise” was Gammie’s Pond. There were 3 of them! We used to go ice-skating at the biggest one. We guys always wore “Hockey Skates” which were black, and the girls wore “Figure Skates” which were white. The main difference between the two kinds of skates was that “Figure Skates” had a single row of teeth on the front of the blade. This enabled any aspiring young girl to emulate being in the Ice Follies thus allowing one to do swell ballet moves with skates. One problem I always had when I ice skated was that my ankles would bend and I’d be skating on THEM instead of the blades. My mother said I had weak ankles and she got me a support that fit into the skates around my ankles. This helped some and at least I was able to skate but with the blades and my ankles at an angle.

 

Wlodarsky’s Pond was really neat because it was close and had perch and bass in it. We used to really enjoy fishing and catching perch and bass as opposed to the Blue Gills we usually caught at all the other ponds and creeks. I still like to ride the horses back through our woods to that pond and recall all the memories! Life was so much simpler then, and we had so much fun doing “simple” things!

 

The following are things I ACTUALLY have to do: Try and figure out what’s causing the CPU in my computer to run at 100% most of the time and “freezing up” my computer now and then. I also need to try and find out what’s wrong with the Tivo on the Satellite TV since it’s recording the wrong programs from time to time. After that, I have to figure out why my wife’s on-line banking account won’t accept her password. Then I need to read the instruction manual for my new Digital Photo Editing soft ware, which is 164 pages long, etc., etc. Oh how I long for the simple times of the “Good Old Days”!!!!

 

Related story link:

“OUR MOTHER’S WERE RIGHT”.