Laugh it off

Growing up I had a serious problem. I thought everything was funny.
If you were a giggler then you know what a problem this can be. The
worst whipping I ever got was from laughing at the wrong time.

We were farmers living in the flood path of the Mississippi river. When
the news came on the radio you were supposed to be quiet, so that my
Father could hear how much the river had risen since yesterday.

Sit down on that couch and shut up was the order. My sister and I sat
down trying not to look at each other. My Father was sitting right in
front of the radio, head down listening intently. Just at that moment,
our old cat decided to stretch herself, look through the screen door
and smile real big right at me.

That was my cue, that had to be the funniest thing I had ever seen. I
was hysterical and could not stop laughing. My Father grabbed me up
jerked off his belt and said the stupidest thing I had ever heard,
which was even funnier----Now I'm going to give you something to laugh
about.---

Today they would have arrested him. Then it was a normal whoppin as
they called it. Normal is when you have red welts and can't sit down
flat for a few days. I don't think I ever saw that cat smile
again

You see when the river was rising and about to come over the banks, you
had to move all your equipment, chickens, and all the outside stuff to
higher ground. Higher ground for us ment the other side of the levee.
Levee's were built to keep the water back and they do just that. Our
family lived behind the levee so when it flooded we were right in the
middle of it.

Our house was built on stilts, so the water never got that high. We
just tied the flat bottomed boat to the porch steps, and waited on the
water. When it came it was like living in another world. Silence
nothing but the slapping sounds of water hitting the boat.

We rode that boat to the levee every morning, climbed up and over the
top of the levee, praying all the time we wouldn't slide back down into
the mud where the boat was anchored to catch the school bus that picked
us up on the dry side.

We did this for days until the water receded and nothing was left but
deep mud. Everything stopped then until it dried out enough to walk on.
If you went to school you needed to have family living in town, or
friends to stay with until you could go home again.

The two things I learned from living through that flood was patience,
you can't rush mother nature. And cats are
not really all that funny.