In my neighborhood in Laporte our streets flooded with even the slightest of storms. school days when it flooded me at the time five with a late birthday not yet in school and my mom would leave early to pick my older sisters, Desiree eight and Brittany seven from the school. We would drive down our street the seamingly fast my mom's truck would seperate the water just for us to pass through. We were always asked to go outside and play on those days, and always denied. Our mother who at the time seamed like a dictator for not letting her three little girls go play in the dirty muddy water. We always demanded reasoning for her ludacris decission and she always said because that water is nasty and we could really get hurt and sick and its not the same as the pool. The next time it flooded my mom was at work, working compressed weekends at the hospital. My dad was steady trying to keep us entertained, but all we wanted to do was go play and if not, just watch from the living room window. As we watched the kids ride their bikes and play in the river of our neighborhood, our dad came in with our rubber boots and a box of heavy duty trash bags. Confused he put them on us and made a head hole and two arm holes. With our "ponchos" and rubber boots we went outside and emerged into the cold icy greenish water. Our friends were almost as shocked as we were to be out. We played for what seamed to be forever my sisters rode their bikes around and pulled me through the beach in our front yard. When it started to rain again we all went back inside before the lightening came. My dad threw us into the shower before my mom made it home. When she did get home she almost immediately knew mostly because of our rubber boots at the front door.She yelled at my dad for a while then told us i'm glad y'all had fun but this is going to be the last time. i did not care i had so much fun and honestly thought we would be able to do it again. But soon after that last storm we had a bad flood that reached rhe garrage. After that the city did construction on our street and drainage system, and it never really flooded again. But on that day we got to be like all the other kids on the block and pretend for that day that we did not have an over-bearing mother but the coolest dad.
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ReplyDeleteMost of us who live on the Gulf coast know it's like to experience flood water, but your childhood perspective presents a unique view.
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ReplyDeleteRebecka, I really enjoyed reading this blog post because I am also very familiar with streets flooding. Not knowing the damage that floods could cause, in elementary school I would always be so excited whenever school was cancelled due to flooding. On the days that it would flood, I would also ride my bike and when the water was low enough I would skim-board. I am glad that you got to experience playing outside during a flood before the introduction of the drainage system on your street.
ReplyDeleteRebecka, I loved reading this post. I found it so funny that your dad was the one who convinced you guys to go out and have some fun because I don't think my dad would ever do that. I think we can all relate with the street floods. In my old house, I loved when it rained just because I knew I was going to be able to play out in the muddy water.
ReplyDeleteI used to live off of a dirt road, which had many pot holes. I remember always begging my mom to let me go play in the water after it rained. Sometimes she would tell me no because it was dirty and I might get sick but most the time she agreed to get my brother and me out of the house for a little while.
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