"Where on earth did you get those crawdads? Where did you find crawdads around here. Shucks, haven't seen them since I was a kid back in the Appalachian hills?"

"Shucks Pa, we just went over to dry creek and found this one little pond that was full of them, but we only brought a few home, so there would be more for others." Joe was all smiles for you could tell he had a good time and he sensed his father was proud of him for not getting all the crawdads.

Joe's dad put his arm around his young son and asked, "Tell me Joe, where on Dry Creek did you find that crawdad hole?"

"Well, Pa, you know where the road crosses the creek, that goes to all the car dealer places?" His dad shook his head yes, "Well just upstream of there, behind that trailer park. Oh yeah just down from where those six head of Mulies, used to winter."

"And you found a crawdad hole there? Huh, don't rightly remember ever seeing any crawdads in that creek." He squeezed the boy's shoulders as they headed from the barn toward the house. "What you plan to do with those, how many you have anyway in that jar?"

"Six, and I thought about making me a crawdad bowl, you know like Susie's fish bowl, ooops her aquarium." You could see puzzlement on the boy's face, but then puzzlement on a little boy's face is about normal.

"Take them and show your Ma, and ask her what she thinks you should do with them; I need to fork some hay to Josh, he worked hard this morning. I will be in the house in a few minutes, supper should be about ready, I smelled something that surely did smell good."

"Ma, Ma, look what I found today, crawdads!" Joe's face was one big red smile.

"Where did you find crawdads around here anyway?" His mother asked as she was cutting biscuits and putting them on that old black biscuit pan that grandma had given her.

"Oh over on Dry Creek, just below where those Mulies winter." Me and De went over after school, rode our bicycles and pushed them across Missile drive, we did."

"De and I," His mother corrected, "Joe you must pay more attention to your grammar." But at the same time she marveled at how well her nine-year-old son did speak.

"Well, what are you going to do with those crawdads?" His mother asked as she took the biscuit scraps and made Joe's favorite, a "scrap cake". Well Joe called it that because he would eat on it at supper and then get some jelly or jam to put on the rest so he had a treat with which to finish his milk.

"Pa, said I should ask you what to do with them, think I could have a crawdad aquarium Ma?" Joe was fishing.

"If it were me, I would take them to show and tell and then after school, put them back in the creek where you found them," His mother knew how to get Joe's brain working and in a lot of cases, get him to do something of his on volition instead of having to be told to do it.

"That's a good idea mom, wonder how many kids in my class have seen crawdads before, real Wyomin crawdads?" He pulled on his Ma's arm and as she bent over he hugged her and said, "Thanks Ma, supper sure smells good," then he went to find his sister Susie to show her his crawdads.

"Supper smells good, what we having? Boy it looks like a storm is a brewing it is really black from the North all the way down to the Southwest. Gave Josh some extra hay for he worked hard this morning." Now that he had said his piece, Pa went back out on the back porch to wash up for supper.

"Remember the time you put a crawdad down the back of my dress and I tore all the buttons off of it getting it off?" Ma smiled as she remembered that event back when they were in the third grade at the Bumfuzzle elementary school. "Boy old Mrs. Cole whomped you good for that too, whomped you right in front of the whole class."

"Yeah but her whomping was nothing compared to the one Ma gave me when I gave her that note from Mrs. Cole." Pa also was reminiscing.

"Yeah and I still have that blue polka dot Swiss dress that I got after you worked to pay for the one I tore off." Ma walked toward Pa and they embraced as he hugged her and added, "Durnation took me two months to earn enough to pay for your dress."

"Glad you did cause then I knew you were my feller,"

As soon as they sat down to the table and said grace, before any food had been passed Joe spoke, "Ma down at the creek today, Clee Sue and Eva Punkinknot were down there getting crawdads."

"Oh the two sisters who moved from down in Texas?" Ma asked as she spooned some mashed potatoes onto her plate.

"You should have seen they way they were catching crawdads, Joe and I just catch them with our hands behind their pincers but you should have seen those girls catching crawdads!" Joe was excited.

Pa put his fork down, wiped his mouth and asked, "Joe how did those girls catch those crawdads?" Then Pa went back to eating.

"Well sir they had twine with a little rock tied on the bottom of it, then they took a safety pin and put a little piece of bacon on the twice about three or four inches up from the rock."

Susie looked funny and asked, "Used a safety pin to pin bacon on a piece of twine?"

"Yes they did and when the crawdads would crawl up the string for the bacon, they would pull the string out of the water and they had a crawdad." Then Joe got this funny look on his face and added, "that was neat and they didn't get wet."

"Well what were they going to do with their crawdads?" Susie made sure she emptied her mouth before she took a drink of milk and spoke.

"They said their Ma cooked them, but the crawdads here are so small, they just add a little flavor to the gumbo she is always talking about." You knew Joe was finished for he immediately started to eat and the crawdad story was done and gone.

Supper was hot roast beef slices with gravy, boiled potatoes with butter, parsley, paprika and fresh ground pepper on them and a big plate of fresh cut green vegetables. Joe and Susie took after their Pa for they loved green veggies and Ma had to go cut some more during the meal. After dinner, when the cleaning up was done, a good game of Parcheesi and then the kids were off to bed.

"Hear that, I knew it was coming," Were Pa's remark as he turned the television on and sat down in his favorite old walnut rocking chair. His great granddaddy Silas had made the chair after lightning split half the tree off.

"Oh listen to it come down, glad you don't have to work down in the bottom tomorrow, for it surely would be a quagmire," Ma said as she sat down and went to work on the Afghan she was making for Cousin Effie's daughter Clemtine. "Wowie, listen to it rain."

When Ma and Pa turned in about ten it was still raining hard, and man did they drop off to sleep fast, cause nothing put them to sleep quicker than rain on the tin roof.

When the alarm went off at five, it was still raining, so when pa went down stairs to make the coffee he turned the radio on and it seems they had slept through quite a rain, for all the creeks were swollen and there was some minor flooding in some areas. Seems like out Happy Jack way they had really had a deluge.

"Joe, why not wait and take your crawdads back to the creek tomorrow, for Dry creek surely will be high and heck we don't want them to wash away, do we?" Ma was serving Oatmeal; Oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar with warmed milk and brown buttered toast.

"Yes Ma, I will bring them home then I will take them back after school tomorrow." Joe didn't want to talk cause he dearly loved Oatmeal with brown sugar.

"Susie, did you find your rain coat, and don't forget to wear your Wellies, for it will be muddy from here to the bus stop, and Joe, you wear your Wellies, for it is too late in the year for you to be going barefooted, OK?" Ma spoke as she packed Pa's lunch box.

The talk of the school was the rain and the high water and Joe had slept through it all, shucks he seemed to miss all the fun. Especially when Pewee told about Mrs. Abrugh's outhouse floating down the wash behind their house. Poor Mrs. Abrugh, she did have bad luck, but shucks her outhouse sat right beside the wash anyway.

So after school the following day, Joe rushed home, changed into his play clothes and he and De took the crawdads back to where they had found them in Dry Creek.

"Joe where did that hole go, this is where the crawdad hole was." De could not understand because the little pond had disappeared and there were no ponds at all in that stretch of the creek.

"Gosh it washed it away and all the crawdads were washed away." Joe also was beleaguered for he thought of all the crawdads and wondered where they were two days later.

"Joe, you going to put them in the water here?"

"Yeah De, you and I are going to reintroduce crawdads to this old creek, and from now on, anyone who comes here will have to ask us before they catch the "De-Joe" Crawdads."

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