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It was a beautiful sunny day where Ronnie Lynn and I were. We were in Peach Orchard Missouri. We were watching some Cows, and a Bull that were grazing a little way across the field from where we were standing. We were standing in a little Creek bed, where Water just slowly flowed over the tops of the Rock bed that lay everywhere in the Stream bed where we were. We were looking in the Stream bed for Crawdads.
The Crawdads were there along the wet sides of the stream bed. They would jump onto a fishing Pole if you offered it to them. All that we had to do was to let the fishing Pole down into the water and see if they would jump on it. Sometimes, we had two or three Crawdads jump on the hook at one time. When they jumped onto the fishing line, the line gave a little tug and we knew we had one. We would laugh and holler at one another all the time while catching crawdads. It was just so much fun to do. We loved having the Crawdads get on a fishing line that we threw out into the water. We did not do anything with them; we just wanted to have the fun of collecting them in our little potted bowls. And we also wanted the fun of our feelings, the one of having the fishing poles go down with their slight weight. And the other feeling was just the fun of giggling at these kinds of God's little creatures and the way they behave. That let us know that we were successful in our play.
We did not need any fishing bait either, for the Crawdads were a very lively bunch, and they would jump on anything that moved cross their line of sight. When they pinched onto our Poles we would give a little scream and then a giggle. "Hey!" "Oh!" "I got one." We would tell each other. It was just so much fun catching them. When it was time to go home, we would then release them to play for another day. We felt that the Crawdads understood that when we caught them. The Crawdads would give us no argument when we let them go back to their muddy home places in the Creek beds.
Ronnie Lynn and I were also watching for Grape Vines on which to swing on. We looked to see how well-fastened they were to the tree itself. We could see that they had grown up into the tree overhead. They grew up and over in the branches of the Trees that were on both sides of the Stream. But we could not see if they were placed safely enough, where it would be all right to swing across the Creek on them. In order to see if they would be strong enough to hold us we would give them a little pull with the weight of our bodies. We were going to have fun swinging on them across the water that streamed across the Creek bed.
I was watching out for the Cows, and the large Bull that drank their water from the Stream bed. We did not want the Cows to cross from where they were and come after us. The Bull looked like it was a Hereford Bull. The Bull was large, and rangy, and we knew it had been there for a while. We also knew that the Bull had seen us, and it was standing there, watching us from where it was. But we were just swinging across the Creek on the Grape Vines, watching the Crawdads, and the Bull to make sure we weren't interrupted in our play. Every once in a while though, Ronnie would cross a little further down in the field to see if he could get up closer to the Bull. He wanted to see if the Bull had horns on him. If he had horns then, we would sooner leave him alone than to bother him.
I was still happily swinging on the vines when Ronnie came running in from the field where the Cows and the Bull were. He said to me, "Let me have the Grape Vine. I want to swing a little bit before we have to go home, I think the Bull is coming." Sure enough, I could see the Bull mooing and becoming anxious. It was upset; the Bull shook his head and moo-oo-ed loudly at us. I believed it was saying "no, go away Home to play." "You can't play here." But it was beginning to come after Ronnie Lynn. "Why, what did you do?" I asked Ronnie Lynn, but he was swinging wide across the Creek looking behind his Back all the while.
Well, He said, "I got close enough to the Bull and I reached out and I touched him. " "Wow, how did he feel?" I said. "silky smooth" "nice" Ronnie Lynn said, but we have to go now. And just as he said that the Bull began to run toward our hiding place along the Creek. Pretty soon the Bull began to come after us.
Ronnie Lynn took one last turn on the Grapevine, he was out in the middle of the Stream when the Grapevine gave away and broke. "Oh, my God" said Ronnie. "Let's get out of here." He had fallen into the Creek bed. Ronnie Lynn was rubbing his wet tosh as he spoke. He was dripping wet, and looking so pitiful that I felt sorry for him. The Bull was running toward us, and mooing loudly, the Grapevine had broken, and we started to run for home. Ronnie was wet, and limping somewhat, but we made it across the fence and left for home. It was a grand adventure then that we laugh about now in our old age together.
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