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| My Front Porch in Belding, Michigan where I grew up during the Great Depression. JOIN ME in a tale about my buddy, Russ, and I and the mischief we could get ourselves into while sitting on this front porch! A poem from my upcoming book, MY FAMILY: How We Survived the Great Depression |
ADVENTURES IN THE
MEADOW
Seated on our front porch
one Saturday morning
looking west across
our street
I see an open vista
Moore’s twenty-acre
meadow
my buddy’s dad owned
the land
way across the field
I see
fenced railroad
tracks
a couple of trains
each day
the neighborhood kids
considered
the grassy meadow our
playground
including
the tracks
built-in fun to play
what new childhood mischief
was this day cooking
up
my buddy showed up
sat down
some projects started
to generate
on their own
in fall looking
forward to
football
a little winter talk
about
snow skiing
much winter talk on
ice skating
lots of spring talk
about playing
basketball
some summer talk
about
baseball
during one summer day
how can we prepare
for ice skating
when the rains come
water flows south
downhill
let’s build an earth
dam
east-west
catch about a foot
deep pond
this winter will be
our skating pond
dig, dig, dig half the day
about a hundred feet
of
earth dam
you think teens are
lazy just watch us
there were horses and
cows chewing grass
all over our meadow
my buddy’s dad owned
the meadow
for his horses and
cows
what the heck are you
kids up to
the horses won’t like
this dirt line
explain
next winter’s skating
pond
right next to a drain
trench
where was the water
coming from
rain
you mean you guys are
thinking ahead
of course
who figured out this
idea
we did
we forgot to ask the
horses
if skating good idea
ok kids keep digging
and building
but avoid my garden
yes sir
my buddy and I and
some friends
talked about building
a baseball diamond
next to his dad’s
garden
bat the balls away
from not into garden
family needs produce
for money is scarce
ever play baseball
with only five or six
boys on each team
started with four
boys each side
grew to six and seven
each team
had one ball two bats
three gloves
we were in baseball
heaven
the horses didn’t
object
and the cows were
quiet
played ball all
morning
Mom yelled stop
playing
come eat lunch
score six to eight
after ten innings we
quit
see you tomorrow
meet me on the front
porch
Copyright....E. John Knapp....2012
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