Chapter 6
As mentioned earlier in this compilation of stories, I enjoyed my time I spent down in Banida. The majority of the time was actually spent at my cousin Sam’s house. Sam and I and sometimes Decker and Bill would play as hard as any group of little boys could ever play. We were always into everything with an imaginary world going on inside. We did everything on my weekend trips imaginable. We mostly enjoyed anything that got us completely filthy.
There were ditches filled with water that evolved into our playground. We would swing from the trees as if we were Tarzan or monkeys. It was always a good time and some of my fondest childhood memories. Down around Banida there is a lot of farming. Along with farming there is also a lot of farm equipment. When equipment stops working on a farm beyond repair it usually gets parked in some obscure part of the field and left to rust away into the wind. Along with swinging through the trees we used to like to climb through the farm equipment that had been abandoned within our reach. An old combine close to Sam’s house played the part of ships, airplanes, and many other things in our imaginary games. It’s amazing none of us died from tetanus after playing on the rusty old thing.
We basically went from one fun activity to the next until it was dark or we were completely exhausted. It didn’t matter what else was happening in the world. When we were playing nothing else mattered. On many occasions we got hurt or got into trouble, but it didn’t usually slow us down any.
There is a saying that people use to describe looking for something that is lost. “It’s like looking for a needle in a Haystack.” Well there was one day that I recall if anyone were to look for us in a Haystack they would have found us. Sam, Decker, Bill, and I occasionally would play on the haystacks around their house. This particular day we discovered that it isn’t very hard to pull apart a bale of hay. As soon as the discovery was made we proceeded to tear apart the top two layers. We made a pile of hay at the bottom of the haystack thick enough to cushion our fall from the top. We began jumping off the haystack and having the time of our life without thinking about the damage we caused. This eventually evolved into flipping and all sorts of acrobatics. It’s amazing none of us got hurt.
I was lucky and got to leave before anyone discovered what we had done. To this day I still don’t know if Sam and Decker ever got in trouble for our game. It sure was a lot of fun and remains stuck in my head as a fond memory from my fun childhood.
