It's good to be a stick in the mud..

When I was a kid, I spent lots of summertime at my Mimi's house in a Texas country farm town called Crosbyton, population 1,874. It was during these summers that I found myself getting into the most marvelous mischiefs.

In my defense, Crosbyton's only form of entertainment was (and is still) "making the drag" which meant that you drove your car pick-up from city limit to city limit (2 or 3 miles) on the main road all the way to the Dairy Queen, then turned around to make the drag again. On a good night, you ran into someone you knew and gossiped with them while leaning on the tail gate of a pick-up. On a bad night you ran into someone you didn't know which meant you probably hated them and your night was sure to end in some sort of tractor chicken race or ass kickin' or spontaneous warehouse dance routine or something..

But even though Crosbyton is not an ideal place to go for entertainment, there were times that were SO much fun. For some reason- probably because I am lamenting the end of another summer- I was remembering some of those fun times that only happen when you are a kid in a small town during the summer.

For example, I remember a particularly rainy summer day - one that left so much water in the bar ditch that if you had an inner tube, you could probably float the length of the drag (How did we never have one?)- we decided to play outside. The rain had left the empty (but plowed) field in front of Mimi's house the consistency of warm pudding. My cousin, my brother, and I looked at each other, all of us thinking the exact same thing.

We ran for the mud, intending at first to only gush it between our toes and make mud pies. But the further we got into the field, the deeper the mud got, and all of a sudden we found ourselves fully clothed and floating in it. Our heads and toes were the only parts of us sticking out of the warm mud. And if there ever are perfect moments to be had in life, this was one of them. The mud was the perfect temperature -warm and spa worthy - in contrast to the chilly rain that was still falling in large drops on our faces and which conveniently provided a little drink when we felt parched - we closed our eyes, looked skyward, and opened wide. And all we could do was grin at each other - for our collective genius of having the idea of getting into the mud in the first place, for going all out and breaking the unspoken, adult "do not wade into the mud" rule, and for feeling that the world had stopped on its axis in order that we enjoy ourselves in this mud.

We spent the better part of the afternoon lolling around in our miry bliss, and even though there were consequences for ruining our clothes; and even though we had to strip down to our skivvies to be hosed off in the driveway in front of hell and creation before we were allowed into the house - losing our pride in the process; and even though mud was compacted in places on our bodies that we didn't even know existed and we were finding it for days.. Even with all of that, it was SO worth it!

We gave ourselves to the complete JOY of the moment.

It was awesome.