Up to Our Knees in Trouble

Our subdivision was actually a small peninsula with the Fox river on 3 sides.  One of the benefits was that it remained a small community without the threat of urban sprawl.  One of the drawbacks was that when the river flooded, it swallowed all of the low lying property, covering the road right up to our driveway.  We were lucky to live on higher ground so the floods became just another fascinating part of living by the river.

Fish of all sizes and shapes would swim in the shallow flood waters so it was like a giant interactive aquarium.  We begged our parents to let us wade in and try to catch the fish with our nets.  We were allowed to go into the water with strict instructions to stay on the road so we could tell how deep it was and always wear our rain boots.  We didn’t mind staying on the road because it was easier to see the fish where there was no mud or grass but we hated wearing our boots.  We wanted to go barefoot because we knew that we could go into the deeper areas where the larger fish seemed to be.

The giant aquarium eventually became too much of a temptation and we took our boots off to wade barefoot in water just behind the garage where we couldn’t be seen from the house.  We had a great time chasing fish and looking for floating treasures.  Afterwards we put our boots back on and went back to the house with plans to enjoy our covert activities again the next day.  Unfortunately, our parents had a very good reason for telling us to wear our boots.  Fish were not the only things that filled the flood waters. By the end of the night we were all horrified to find a large, itchy, red rash covering our legs right up to our knees from the bacteria in the water.  There was nothing worse than our painful self-inflicted punishment except maybe watching our parents try to stifle their laughter as they applied the first aid.