THE FIRST DAY OF CHILDHOOD MISERY...

It was one of those cold days of fall, when the leaves were off the trees and the air was filled with the cold blowing wind of winter. My sister, Carole and I arrived home from school...the days were short and darkness arrived early. On this day, the sky was filled with torrents of cold, damp rain. The kind that beats down creating mud puddles and all the dirt has turn to muck. The walk home from the bus was cold and wet. Knowing Mom and Dad were in Pittsburgh selling eggs and wouldn't be back until late. My sister and I were on our own. Looking forward to a warm room and a place to curl up and feel safe. Instead, we walked up the drive way and discovered...all the chickens were out and running around loose. How did they escape? One thing we did know...if my Dad got home and those chickens were out, we were in the biggest trouble of our life...quickly we opened the door threw down our school books and headed out to corral these renegade chickens. Now, I don't know if you have ever tried to corner a chicken...but it is one of the hardest things you will ever do...actually these were still babies and a bit slow on their feet, but still it was going to be a challenge. Something neither of us wanted to face, but knowing the consequences, we must capture the escapees. With the cold rain, pouring down on us and the stormy clouds getting darker and darker every minute. We crawled under the old truck body, slid in the mud, ran through the mud puddles corralling and grabbing at random these chicks as they ran past us...It seemed forever, we slid, rolled and ran cornering these bandits. After what seemed like hours, the light now gone, the rain still dropping and the chill of cold, dark night was on the horizon. Finally we captured them all..wet, tired and freezing we dropped into the safety of our house. Only to find out we had no heat. The cold air wrapped around our wet bodies. Feeling completely abandoned and in such misery now the cold seeped into my skin making wet wrinkles on my body. We had been wrapped in wet clothes for hours...chasing these chickens...My sister and I decided to take off our wet clothes and wrap in anything we could find that would suffice for a blanket. So hungry, tired, shivering my teeth chattering from cold...The darkness consumed us and we finally fell off to sleep...I will never forget that miserable night, I will not ever take for granted the warm, peaceful, feeling of wellness. I pray I never ever have to be miserable like that ever again. I can't imagine and have such compassion for people that encounter that kind of uncomfortableness often...all because they are poor, unable, and forced into a lifestyle not of their choosing...Life deals so many stumbling blocks..in front of us. It is up to us to learn to crawl over them..Oh, yea and by the way, it turned out, we were out of kerosene..my father was proud of us when they got home, we saved the chickens...after going to buy 5 gallon of fuel for our stove from the profits of the day..... finally it got warm. So on now to a new day!! This one is over and we are still alive!!