While I was walking the dogs yesterday through the tall wet grass in the hayfield, I spotted a little blue peeking out from the clouds. We got two and a half inches of rain in the last couple of days. It boomed a little too that had Frankie nervous and holed up in the corner beside the bed.
But when I was a kid and wanted it to quit raining so that I could go back outside and play, I was told that I could look up at the cloudy sky to check if it might be going to clear up. If I could see enough blue to make a sailor’s suit, then the skies were going to clear and I could get back to enjoying the outdoors. My mother did some sewing and I was learning to sew too. I knew about patterns you laid out on the material to cut out the pieces to sew together for whatever you were making. So, I can remember looking at blue patches between the clouds and trying to decide if I could lay out enough pattern pieces to make that sailor’s suit. I guess I never thought about what size the sailor might be or that the sailors I saw in pictures were generally in all white. None of that mattered as long as I thought the patch of blue was big enough for that sailor’s suit so the rain would stop.
Then, what girl hasn’t plucked the petals off of a daisy while saying “he loves me” or “he loves me not?” I rarely even had a boy in mind when I was pulling off those daisy petals. Another boyfriend fun prediction was when we peeled an apple. If you could keep the peel all in one long strip, Mom told us we could throw the strip over our shoulder and see what initial it made when it fell on the floor. That would be the initial of the boy we’d someday marry. As best I remember, “S” was a popular result. Or “C.” Once I started dating my husband to be, I had to be creative to think the peel landed in a “D” shape. 🙂
And did you ever ask a granddaddy longlegs which way the cows went? I’m guessing you might have if you were a farm kid in the south. That spidery bug would always point with one of its legs, but I don’t think any of us trusted him enough to go that way searching for the cows.
We always had a lot of nature clues for when spring might really be here. One I heard farmers sometimes say was that it was corn planting time when the oak leaves were as big as a squirrel’s ear. I’ve never measured a squirrel’s ear, but I’m guessing it might be about the size of these leaves. Of course, I found some other oak leaves a day or so ago that were much bigger. I guess a farmer had to know which tree to use as a planting guide.
The one I liked best though had to be wishing on that first star at night.
“Wish I may – Wish I might – On the first star I see tonight.”
I could make my wish, but then I couldn’t look back at that first star until I saw a second star show up in the sky. If I looked back at that first star before I saw the next one, I wouldn’t get my wish. Not that they all came true even if I did follow all the star wishing rules, but it was fun to hope they might.
What fun things like that did you do as a kid?
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As a fisher, one method of prognostication I still like to use is: When the dogwoods bloom the stripers loom.
Author
My husband who is the fisherman in the family didn’t say that about the stripers, Mary, but he did say it was time to go croppie fishing. I think it was croppie. You can tell I don’t know my fish.
My neighborhood girlfriends and I grew up in a city. We spent hours looking for 4-leaf clovers in my backyard, which was full of clover plants. We sucked “honey” from the many honeysuckle vines growing in the alley, and we caught many a lightning bug in the evenings and put them in jars. On our walks to school, we encountered a number of ribbon grass plants, which we would pick and fold just right so we could shoot the heads off them at one of the others of us in the group. So we did have some nature experiences in our neighborhood.
Author
Sounds like you had a lot of fun with outdoor things, Suzanne. I missed out on those ribbon grass plants. But I did used to stretch a piece of grass just so between my thumbs and blow on it to make it squeal. We caught lightning bugs too. My grandkids have enjoyed doing that in my yard. We’ve sucked some of that sweetness from honeysuckle blooms too.
Participated & won 3 legged sack races. Climbed trees & read books from the library. Always participated in making arts & crafts at school summer program. Oh, I almost forgot…playing box hockey games. Those were the days!
Author
You must have been coordinated to win those 3 legged sack races. That’s not so easy to do. I liked to read books I got from the library too, Betty. That was always one of the very best things about summer. Time to read. And visiting my cousins. We had such fun.
All I can say is that kids today have no idea what they’re missing by not having all those small sayings be part of their life. Parents had to be inventive to occupy children who had few toys. So much has been lost.
Author
My cousins and I would sometimes say let’s go get lost on purpose, Loretta. Of course, we weren’t really lost, but we did have fun wandering around in the fields and woods. Our mothers gave us enough credit to stay out of trouble, I guess. I do think kids miss out being wrapped up in their electronic games and not getting to use their imaginations to entertain themselves. The great outdoors was our toys.
We would stand in a circle surrounding the granddy longlegs and ask it “Who is the fool?” and wait to see which of us it would point to.
Author
That’s more fun than asking where the cows are, Lee. LOL
My husband, who grew up on a farm near Mammoth cave, would make “helicopters” with a corn cob and chicken feathers stuck in the end. They would toss them up and watch them spin as they fell back down. I’m going to start looking for enough blue for the sailor suit now. I love that!
Author
Amy, I’ve heard of kids doing that, but I don’t think I ever tried it. My husband said they just had corncob fights. LOL. I guess I just shelled the corn and fed my chickens. We did play a crazy game called something like what color is my pretty bird. We had a thimble of water and we went around the circle and whoever guessed the color of your imaginary pretty bird got the thimble full of water thrown in their face. For some reason we loved that game.