Dust or Mud

 

 
 

Dust or Mud?

                                              by Judy

While I did not experience dust comparable to the dust of the dust bowl years, I did live in a house on a rock road while a child. Our house did not have air-conditioning, and every window in the house was open during the long, hot summer days. If a family member saw a ball of dust approaching, notice was quickly given for all available personnel to close the windows. Funny thing about that dust, though, it found its way through the smallest crevice, and our farmhouse had a lot of small crevices.

My mother tried to keep the house dusted, but it was a happy day in her life when she learned our county road was scheduled to become a “black top.” What she didn’t realize was that before the road could become a blacktop, the rock road would become a mud road. In order to get to the one room school we kids attended, we had to travel a mile…on the dusty or muddy road. During warm weather, we either walked or rode our bicycles. The condition of the road did not bother us.

The dust or mud, whichever the case was, did bother Mother and our teacher. The worst days were the cold days of winter. On those days Daddy took us in the old WWII jeep our family owned. It had a homemade tin top over the seat, but the benches in the back were not covered. Mud splattered off the wheels onto our clothing.

Our dog liked to ride in the back of the jeep and usually made the trip to school. In addition to having mud splatters on my dress, I sometimes smelled as if a wet dog had shared my bench in the back of the jeep. One had, in fact, just done that. I still miss that dog.