Melting Snow

Midweek Reflections on Mud

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

"Writing is like walking in a deserted street. Out of the dust in the street you make a mud pie."
John le Carre

The "Blogging Circle of Friends "  prompt for Day 1323
June 29 is International Mud Day. This is the day to get down, get dirty and have fun in the mud. Almost everyone has mud memories about playing in the mud. Write a story or poem about mud in celebration of International Mud Day.

A rain day was a
jumping in mud puddles day
and a mud pie day.

Snow days were nice in winter
because school was suspended,
but rain days in summer were better.

Rain days created mud puddles
for us to jump in
when we walked home from school.

On Rain days we could make mud pies
with small stones as cherries
of some other sort of fruit.

I remember arriving home from school on rainy days all wet from jumping in mud puddles. My shoes and socks were soaking wet. My legs were streaked with mud. My dress was wet and muddy along the hem, however, my school books and homework were dry because I carried them under my raincoat or wrapped the raincoat around them. When I wrapped my books in my raincoat then the rest of me was wet as well.

When I arrived home from school, Mom would send me into the bathroom to take my clothes off and take a hot shower. After the shower she would sit me down at the kitchen table for me to do my homework. On rainy days Mom always made a cup of hot chocolate to warm me and my sibling up. On non-rainy days we got something cold to drink when we got home from school, but on rainy days we needed warmed up from jumping into mud puddles on the way home.

I don't remember Mom every getting upset when we came home with wet clothing on a rainy day. Maybe she thought it was something children do and the wasn't much she could do about it since she didn't have a car to pick us up on rainy day. I enjoyed walking home from school, but it was especially nice on muddy and rainy days.

Mud pies at Grandma's
was a special creation
because Grandma would sit
at the table pretending
to eat them with us.

My Grandparents had a faucet outside their kitchen door. When I went to visit them I would get water from the faucet to make mud pies. As I made the mud pies I would put small stones in them as fruit. After I finished the mud pies Grandma would sit in the kitchen with me and we would pretend to eat them. I think this was the best part of staying with my grandparents. I could always count on Grandma to pretend with me.