DOWN IN THE DUGOUT

by Karen M. Rice

     In 1905 George and Sophie Smith survived, along with their baby daughter and a team of matched horses, a tornado that killed 165 people.  That cyclone also demolished many farm houses and barns along the route and completed took away the local school, leaving behind only the large flat stone used for a step up to the door.

     When George and Sophie rebuilt, the first thing they did was dig a "dugout"  A big hole in the ground with a beam and dirt roof that did double, even triple duty - or more!  It was a root cellar, had shelves for the storage of canned goods, provided a shady place for kids to play in the summer, and last but surely not least, it housed a collection of bugs, spiders, and snakes that many a museum would envy!

     When George and Sophie's second child, a girl named Leota, grew up and married she and her husband Ernest had a little girl they named Karen.  Karen is an old gray haired woman now, like the long dead Sophie, but her memory is quite good.  She remembers being yanked out of bed at the first rumble of thunder, and being taken down into the dark, dank hole in the ground.

     There were glass kerosene lanterns for light, and it was fun to watch the monstrous shadows thrown by June bugs or moths flitting around the glass lamps.  Sometimes Grandpa George would make shadow puppets with his hands to entertain the kids during the long wait for the storm to pass over.  One night all he did was stare at Grandma Sophie on the other bed.

     When she asked, "What in the land of Goshen are you looking at?" he grinned and replied,  "A snake keeps sticking it's nose out of that hole you're sitting by, and I'm trying to figure out what kind it is."  Grandma Sophie made the leap from bed to bed without a foot touching the floor.  That was funny.  That was surely a sight to see.  The little girl laughed, and the gray haired old woman sits and writes and cries.

© 20 Ma7 2009 by Karen M. Rice