Tranquility

When I was a little girl I lived in a ranch style home in New Albany. Our home was located on Harlem road and was nestled in a grove of hedge apple, maple and thorn trees. In front of our house was a pond that was creek fed. I don't know where the creek began and I don't know where it ended but for the entire time we lived there, it was explored. The pond was everything to me. I would go out to fish for the blue gill and the other fish, probably catfish, and I would look for crawdads. My sisters and friends and I would wade in the creeks and catch tadpoles and frogs, look for turtles and try to stay away from the snakes. We had a large snapping turtle who lived under the bridge in the lower creek so we kept and eye on our toes and each time one of the neighbor kids would spot the legendary snapper, it would have grown in size and weight. By the time we moved from there that turtle could have eaten Jaws if the two met. Of course there were various furry creatures; beavers, muskrats, a mink, that didn't show themselves much in the light of day but it was fun to try to find them as we waded down the creek. We would see holes dug in the bank by some critter and swear that it was the wild mink that lived there. We never saw the mink but it, along with the snapping turtle gave us endless adventures in our own little safari. On days when we didn't feel like getting wet or it was too cold out, our pond became a huge "soup bowl" and fed the giant who lived in our imaginations. My friends and I would sit by the pond with a collection of leaves and flowers and seed pods and berries and pretend to be the giant's servants. We would make mud pies and roll large leaves around them to make "cabbage rolls" and we would make salads complete with mushrooms and even an occasional minnow soup. The giant would be pleased and reward us with time off to go explore for more "exotic" foods for his next meal. My friend Desiree had an old concrete-mixing trough that she would put into the pond to use as a boat and we would paddle around in that and she had a large fishing net stretched between two long poles with floats on the top and we would go to the upper creek and each take a pole and walk slowly up the creek to see what we could catch in our net. It was a blast! We caught all sorts of pond creatures but we would just look at them and then turn them loose again. That pond was the focus of all of our play. No matter what the season, we were in, around, on and near the pond. In winter, we ice skated, in summer we waded, in spring we waited for all of our hibernating friends to come play with us as we watched the snow and ice melt and in fall we watched the leaves from the trees land on the surface of the water creating miniature boats in which insects and other miniature passengers sailed to the lower creek and parts unknown to us. Sometimes when it was really hot out, we would "fall in" to cool off. We weren't allowed to swim in the pond because our moms were scared that it had diseases. The parents thought that the sewers emptied into that pond but, thinking back, it was just clean water coming from septic tanks. It had been filtered and with the abundance of water life and plants, it was clean enough to play in. Yes, there were some dangers; leeches, snapping turtles, an errant piece of broken glass (found by my sister and causing a huge gash in her foot that needed many stitches and eventually surgery) and of course the snakes, but I was drawn there nonetheless....no matter how much trouble I might get in, because even at that young age, it was a place of peace and tranquility. A place I would go even by myself to sit and reflect and watch and learn. I will never forget the sounds and the smells or the wildlife. I mean after all, who needed at television set or a video game? I had the Discovery Channel right there in my front yard! It was interactive too! And as for video games? I could play "Frogger" for real! I never thought I would be so blessed as to have a pond in my front yard ever again. You see, I've become a "city girl" spoiled by all the conveniences of shopping and dining and activities and PEOPLE around me...so I would sit and dream or bring back the memories of the pond and wish that my grand babies would have that kind of enjoyment too. But just when I thought it was too late...that I would only have a pond in my mind...my friend Joe got the ball rolling with some landscaping in my front yard and my son-in-law Shane constructed a beautiful waterfall with TWO ponds and a creek! He worked hard all summer. He would dig and fight with tree roots my pond is under my big maple tree and lug stones and flat rocks and fight with the rubber liners and all the plumbing and then he built the waterfall with heavy stones and mortar and pipe and electricity to make it all work. I waited patiently and sometimes not so patiently for his work to be completed. I could hardly stand it until I had my very own pond in my very own yard. And the first time we turned on the pumps to run the falls I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning. The falls, created with flat field stones and old ornamental ceramic bird bath pieces, empty into a heart shaped pond that flows over a little dam into the creek that eventually empties into another oval pond at the bottom of the yard. There is a dragon who guards the creek and an over sized snail who guards the falls. It is beautiful in both image and sound. The relaxing sound of splashing water. It's fun to watch the cats drink out of it and the other critters be curious about it. I can hardly wait until they get brave enough to drink or swim or bathe in it too! Since it is a new pond, it doesn't have that musky pond smell yet but I know it will. Perhaps if I add some wildlife to it...a few fish and maybe a crawdad or two. I have a fake turtle because I think turtles would wander off but it's okay.... I have a beautiful yard. I can see all of my plants now. and thanks to my Shane.... I have a pond.