That campfire thaw gives new meaning to the expression "burning rubber" while the great baked-beans explosion takes me back to my grandparents' house, where I read in rapt attention the tale of the Great Molasses Flood in Boston in 1919. I'd pick up their old issue of Progressive Farmer every time we arrived and then I'd wallow in that molasses massacre. And then we'd go out and build a fort of pine branches on the Back 40 (more like a Back 10), waving at Jack the Mule as we ran and hearing my grandmother shout, "Watch out for snakes, boys!" — and inevitably we'd run into and around a copperhead, cottonmouth or king snake along the pine-needle-laden paths. Once, our beagle George sniffed a serpent too closely and wound up with a jowl the size of a small grapefruit. A trip to Dr. Garrett's vet clinic and he survived to chase another day: snakes, nutria, rabbits, possums and the like.
Wow, those are great memories! And you made me look up "nutria." Your grandma was write - those snakes were not something to mess with. And that Great Molasses Flood is truly terrifying. We have a kids book of it somewhere, and well, what a thing to live through and then have kids read about. Thank you for reading and your creative comment! Love the specificity - "Jack the Mule" as if, of course, we all know about Jack the Mule. Keep writing memories!
That campfire thaw gives new meaning to the expression "burning rubber" while the great baked-beans explosion takes me back to my grandparents' house, where I read in rapt attention the tale of the Great Molasses Flood in Boston in 1919. I'd pick up their old issue of Progressive Farmer every time we arrived and then I'd wallow in that molasses massacre. And then we'd go out and build a fort of pine branches on the Back 40 (more like a Back 10), waving at Jack the Mule as we ran and hearing my grandmother shout, "Watch out for snakes, boys!" — and inevitably we'd run into and around a copperhead, cottonmouth or king snake along the pine-needle-laden paths. Once, our beagle George sniffed a serpent too closely and wound up with a jowl the size of a small grapefruit. A trip to Dr. Garrett's vet clinic and he survived to chase another day: snakes, nutria, rabbits, possums and the like.
Wow, those are great memories! And you made me look up "nutria." Your grandma was write - those snakes were not something to mess with. And that Great Molasses Flood is truly terrifying. We have a kids book of it somewhere, and well, what a thing to live through and then have kids read about. Thank you for reading and your creative comment! Love the specificity - "Jack the Mule" as if, of course, we all know about Jack the Mule. Keep writing memories!