Our usual clothes were jeans and shirts, and in the summer we cut off the jeans. We got new shoes once a year when school started. In the summer we went barefoot. Portia remembers her feet having soles as tough as leather. Besides leather feet, summer also brought fishing for crawdads at our neighbor's pond. We usually fished with bacon tied to the end of a string, but Portia liked fishing with her toes, picking the crawdads off as they pinched her summer-toughened feet. Summer also brought chiggers, poison ivy, bee stings and snake bites. Portia was especially allergic and was frequently covered with some rash or another. We invented our own games such as creek exploring and mud people. We covered our bodies with mud and pretended to be from another planet. We explored the creek for miles learning all its bends and turns and choosing our secret places.
The winter brought different pleasures. We remember the rare mornings when we would awaken to find the ground covered with snow. We would traipse after our father as he tracked down a rabbit, which was easy to do in the snow. Our mother would make snow ice cream from snow, sugar, cream and vanilla. We played in the snow with the pungent aroma of a hot wood fire spewing from the chimney of our house. When tired and cold, we shucked our outer clothes in the inside porch, and warmed ourselves before the blazing fire. Rabbit and dumplings warmed our tummies. Winter also brought hard work in all kinds of weather. And it brought the fun and excitement of going to school each day.
© 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003 Portia Isaacson Bass and Veta Leigh. All rights reserved.