A Happy Childhood, Playing with Mud

Remembering the fun we’d had as children, playing in the embrace of nature??? Translated…

In the evenings, as I watched Chibi Maruko Chen with my children, it’d talked about the little boys wanted to compete in making balls from mud to throw at each other, and, it’d, reminded me of my own childhood, playing with mud.

After the schools let go in my elementary years, I’d dumped my backpack, then run out, during those days, when our parents were always, busy, working, there’s no cram schools in the countryside, so, the group of us children would always run and play outside until we’re hungry, then headed home. There was an empty lot close to our school, with the unused construction materials lying around, bricks, hoses, wood, etc., etc., etc., there were wildflowers, and weeds to pick, and we were often, visited by an assortment of insects as well, there were also, two big trees we can, climb up and down.

We were, ALL attacked, by the mud man…not my photograph…

We’d play hide-and-seek, hopscotch, stop signs, bo-beep, and competed climbing up the trees, but, we’d often fought hard as groups of girls and boys, for the usages of this lot, and, the only time when boys and girls don’t fight over the matters was when we’d all played with the mud puddles close by.

First, we’d added some water to the mud and sand mixtures, to build a river, made two long walls, then, tear off our old homework assignment book pages, and made boats from them, and raced our boats in the dug out muddy river, we’d blown on our boats, saw them shaking as they moved forward, at the same time, we’d needed to look out for others’ boats or to not tip our boats over, we’d needed to consider everything, from the direction of the wind, to how we construct our ships from origami.

Waited until all our boats became completely soaked, the water from the small river was also, infiltrated by the mud, it’d become, softened, then, we’d used the mud to build up the mud castles. The boys loved building the castles to play a game of army invasion, we’d used popsicle sticks, branches and small rocks, made them into weapons we’d used to attack; while the girls liked building the houses to play house, used the leaves and the flowers, as the yummy snacks of the games.

a gmae of cooking…not my photograph…

Until right before it was time to head home to work on our homework, there was still, a HUGE event—molding the balls out of the mud. Don’t think it’s anything easy, the skills needed a ton of experience, a lot of patients to perfect. Too much water, the mud becomes too soggy, and we can’t make the grains stick together; not enough water, the mud and sand becomes too dry and wouldn’t keep their shapes; we’d needed to, carefully repeat the processes of clamping the mud together tightly, dipping the ball in water, adding the mud and the sand, then, we might be able to, make the mud balls, that we’re satisfied with. Afterwards, we’d hidden our separate mud balls in cooler places that each of us wouldn’t know about, then after a few days, when it’d become dried and hardened, we’d, come back, and have a competition: throwing our balls at others’ balls, to see whose stays in one piece.

My parents didn’t have too much to say about us playing outside, but, as we’d come home, covered in mud and sand, we’d, gotten grilled. There was also black sand, stuck to the bottoms of our shoes, it’d made the entryway to our house so dirty; and we’d also be, covered in mud from head to toe too, and it would take us forever, to wash it all off. The most troubling was how the sand and the mud would get stuck in our fingernails, and, no matter how we’d scrubbed our hands, it won’t come off, and finally as our nails got scrubbed clean, we’d gone out, and gotten them messy once more.

I remember how we all knew the song “Close to You, Close to Me” well, the lyrics used the game of molding mud to describe how close they are to each other, the final lines were, “From here on out, it’s safe for me to say, there’s you in my mud, and me, in your mud.” Hearing this song growing up, it rang true, there’s mud in my childhood, there’s, also mud in yours too.

whoever ends up the dirtiest, wins!!!  Not my photo still…

This, would be, a wonderful memory of childhood, the narrator remembered how much fun she’d had, playing with mud, and the assortments of creative games she and her friends came up with to play, it’d reminded her of her own childhood innocence, and she’d, reminisced through her childhood, filled with fun, playing with mud!