Dirty Feet and Heavy Water Buckets

Delores used to get me to draw her Hopscotch court patterns in chalk on the sidewalk or with a stick in the dirt. I didn’t like Hopscotch, but I did like Jump Rope, especially Double Dutch when it finished with that flourish of accelerated speed. And Carol taught me Jacks, which she and Dee and Diana could play until the cows came home. This reminds me of how filthy we used to all get playing in the dirt all day. Mom never made us wash up before meals, but she wouldn’t let us go to bed with dirty feet. I think the fact that water had to be carried in from the well in big heavy buckets and heated on the stove may have influenced this decision. Both Bob and I helped with carrying the buckets, though we could just barely lift one with both arms when full. Mom ran a clean house but she often said, “You need some germs to fight back with.” She was right about that, as it turns out.