"THE FISH POND"

The old navy-blue Ford truck rattled across the Arkansas River bridge into Jenks, Oklahoma, that late Spring afternoon in 1951. We four children huddled in the back, being sprinkled by raindrops, sitting amongst the last of the household furnishings, wondering what our new house would be like.

Momma and Daddy had found the house. They wanted to surprise their children and had decided to not let us see it until moving day. We had been told only that it was larger than the rented house we'd lived in for the previous four years, and that it had two stories! We were all so excited and filled with anticipation we could hardly stand the ten mile drive south!

We came into the small town from the East down Main Street. We saw the brick three-building Jenks School complex, Gibson's Grocery, Love's Cleaners, Spicer's Laundry, Mac's Drug, Vivian's Cafe, Bayouth's Department Store, the Ritz Theater, George's Cash Store, Martin's Grocery, Branchcomb Hardware . . . all places that were new to us that day, but places that were owned by people who would soon become a part of our daily lives. Having always lived in semi-rural areas, we were all eagerly looking forward to our first WALK to town!

Daddy turned the truck around a corner onto 2nd, drove one block north off of Main Street, one more left onto "A" Street, and slowly drove into the dirt driveway of our new home. We were speechless! It was the largest house we'd EVER seen. We couldn't even imagine how many rooms it must have. To our innocent child-like eyes, our new home was truly a MANSION. We all piled out of the truck chattering like magpies, excitement spilling over like a pot of boiling milk.

As we opened the front door, we were met by the aroma of fresh paint, putty, and wallpaper paste. The house had just been newly redecorated for us, and looked to us like something right out of the pages of a magazine! We secretly discussed the fact that Daddy must have won a big contest or something to make us so rich that we could live in a house like this one. We felt like we must be royalty!

The house held many wondrous cubbies and secret places that nurtured our adventurous streak. The intriguing basement, smelling of must and mold, was dark enough to let the eyes of the mind see strange creatures in the corners and under the stairs, but was illuminated well enough to keep us from scaring ourselves! The middle attic room that opened into a perfect playroom/clubhouse! There was even a breakfast room that was sunny, bright, and opened out into the big backyard.

As wonderful as the house was, our eyes immediately spied the most wonderful sight of all . . . right out beyond the double windows in the dining room was a fish pond! Well, at least that's what we were told it was supposed to be. But to us, it was more than just any old fish pond!

After we got barely settled in and had the furniture arranged and our belongings put away, we kids had a meeting to plan the renovation of the fish pond. We all unanimously voted that it should be our swimming pool. True, it didn't have a source of water other than rain, but that didn't deter us one bit. We figured if we could once get the frogs, the bugs, the slime, and the algae out of it, we could tackle getting water to it without much problem at all. Why, if we could just muster the troops, we have that fish pond cleaned out in jig time! So the work began.

We spent most of the next two weeks fishing trash, old logs and branches, and globs of unidentifiable "stuff" out of the pond. Then we each got buckets, large cans, whatever we could find, and began to bail all of the stagnant water out of it. It was a terrible, smelly job, but we were determined. After we got the water level down to about a foot, we all decided it was time to take off our shoes and get in the thing to get the last bits out. Between our fear of stepping on a hidden water snake or a frog, and slipping around on the algae growing on the bottom and sides of the concrete, it is a wonder we didn't give up right then. But we were an industrious bunch of kids, and we kept on toward our goal, visualizing ourselves in our swimwear, dog-paddling, swan diving (into three feet of water) and being the envy of all the town!

After many more hours of scraping the sides and bottom with steel wool, wire brushes, and anything else we figured had an "edge" to it, we let it dry out well and swept it out clean. NOW, we decided, it was time to find water!

We began by telling ourselves that if we were willing to bail the water OUT with buckets, we could certainly bucket fresh water IN. That lasted about an hour, each of us filling our bucket or can at the kitchen sink, slopping water all over the floor, and carrying it out the back door and dumping it into the pond. After Momma pointed out to us that there was more water on the kitchen floor than in the pond, we decided we had to come up with "Plan B."

"Plan B" involved going next door to the lot where the trailer home of Jay and Lucille Henry was located. They, along with their sons, Sammy and Lonnie, not only had their home there . . . but most importantly to us . . . a WELL.

We knocked on the door of the Henry home wearing our sweetest and most beguiling smiles, and begged Mr. Henry to let us use his well water and hose to fill up our "little" pond (we didn't want to make it sound at THIS particular point like a "swimming pool"). Our friendly neighbor agreed and we were on our way to owning our very own resort. It didn't take long to see the water level come up, along with our expectations.

When the pool was finally filled, we ran into the house, changed into our "beach clothes" (cut offs and tee-shirts) and ran out to the edge of the pond, with its clear, sprakling, inviting water. On the count of three we all jumped in. It was at this point in time we all suddenly discovered just how COLD well water is! Four very shocked children clambered out of that fish pond faster than greased lightning! We could hear our Momma rolling with laughter inside the house, where she had been watching us through the dining room windows. She was not very sympathetic at all, we decided!

Our next plan was to let the sun warm the water "naturally." Each day we'd go out and sit at the edge of the pond, dangling our legs into the water in hopes it would be the "right" temperature to allow us to go in. But before that day arrived, a big storm came, filled the pond with run-off, more branches, baskets of leaves, and then more frogs and other assorted critters. Not feeling much like going back to square one, we decided to think of another use for the fish pond.

Our "big" brother Jim, got with two of his buddies, Gary Gibson, son of Lynn and Freda Gisbon who owned Gibson's Grocery, and Don Fisher, son of Pete and Vivian Fisher who owned Vivian's Cafe. They came up with our very successful "Plan C." We would use it for our "lake!".

Jim set about in Daddy's basement workshop building a little boat, big enough to hold all four of us kids, but still small enough to be floated on the fish pond. For what seemd to us like forever, Jim drew plans, sawed, hammered, and sealed our little row-boat. The only paint we had on hand was black, but we didn't mind. At least we had a boat and we could all go a-sailing!

After maneuvering the boat up the basement stairs and out the back door, we launched our little vessel into the fish pond. Jim made the boat just a little bit bigger than he'd measured, and while it certainly held all four of us, the only direction the boat could move was around and around and around and around, as if in a very slow-moving whirlpool. Did we mind??? Certainly not!!! We thought we were just about the smartest people we EVER knew.

Each and every evening after we'd finished our supper, we'd all pile into our little boat. Jim would paddle us around and around and we'd spend the long summer evenings pretending we were on excursions, meandering up and down newly discovered rivers, spotting all kinds of wild life and tropical birds. When we got bored with that game, we'd begin to sing. One of our favorites, and one we could harmonize pretty well on, was:

As loud as we were (whether we were on key or not), I'm sure we kept the whole town awake as we'd sit in the boat singing and floating around and around until Momma and Daddy finally made us come in long after dark to go to bed.

By the time the next summer came, we had all made more friends and had gotten interested in other activities and adventures. But still, every once in a while we would talk about that fish pond, holding out hope that someday we would figure out the key to making it the local swimming pool.

My Momma still lives in our house, and it's just as wonderful a home as it always was. Eventually the lots the house sat on were divided and a new owner acquired the fish pond and promptly filled it up with dirt, making it but a memory.

But I know it's still there, and if we could just muster the troops, I bet we'd have that fish pond cleaned out in jig time!