I've never been on a Cruise. To be honest, I've never really even wanted to. Maybe that will change when I retire. I do remember fondly taking a few days about this time of year for crucial, demanding, spring activities. Every able bodied man in our little community, spent several days cleaning the local irrigation canal. I remember the bologna sandwiches for lunch, sometimes with fresh water cress. I remember the good conversation, sometimes laced with rather colorful words that I had been taught not to use, with hard working neighbors, as we shoveled, hefted boulders, and cleared debris from the canal. I remember fondly watching the birds in the willows, and the bees humming in the bushes. I remember finding bird nests full of new eggs, ducks and robins and magpies etc. I remember seeing a baby faun deer, the first I had ever seen. I remember how we all worked harmoniously together for a common cause. I watched with great interest while one of the farmers demonstrated his gift for witching wells. No one every expected to be be paid even a single cent for their labors. I remember late each afternoon we would stop our work, and everybody would rush home to get the cows from the pasture and get them milked before supper and bedtime. I remember being so tired and sleeping so well, only to arise the next morning, get the chores done, have a good breakfast prepared by a loving mother, and gathering up our tools and getting to the spot on the canal where we'd left off the day before. We usually worked from the north end of the thirteen mile long canal while a similar group worked from the south end. After a few days the two groups met. There was a little celebration, of sorts, occasionally topped of by some home made root beer, brought by one or more of the farmer's wives. At the conclusion of this usual "Spring Break" ritual, my father, who was the water master for many years, would take one other man to the head of the canal on Mill Creek where they would raise the head gate and divert the water from the stream to the canal. Then, with shovels in hand ,they would walk, or run along in the canal ahead of the small advancing stream of water clearing any debris that was collecting in front of the moving water until it reached the end of the canal. These were the longest days and sometimes went into the night, depending on the difficulties encountered.
When all was said and done everyone felt a sense of accomplishment, and gratitude. There would be a supply of life giving water to sustain us for the summer and by way of the crops produced, throughout the year. I remember talk of water, not just irrigation water, but of living water, which would sustain us not just for the summer, but throughout eternity. Sunday found us all, in church giving thanks for Spring Break. Some of the modern generation would probably not want to trade their experiences for ours. It is a different world no doubt, but I look back with gratitude and fondness. Times like these helped make us what we became. I suppose by today's standards, most of us didn't really amount to much. My dad always used to say, "to a hill of beans." Don't ask me the origin of that term. We made lifelong friendships that lasted through thick and thin. I cherish them more with each passing year. These memories are chronicled in my mind. We didn't own a camera and we couldn't have afforded a roll of film for it if we had. How I wish we had some pictures of those days and some recordings of the stories that were told as we worked or as we sat around for a half hour at lunch time.
Now, now most of my former neighbors and friends are dead, but occasionally I find myself reaching out to them still as another passes to the other side. It is surprising how the fond memories of former friends and times flood back into my mind, and the amount of effort I still want to put forth to see them one last time, even if it's just lying in a casket surrounded by family and friends and reminisce on the goodness of life and a sure knowledge that we will see each other again in a better world.
I've never been on a Cruise. Maybe after I retire. The term "Spring Break didn't even exist in the English vocabulary back then, and it is still evolving in many ways, some good and meaningful, others much less so. In the meantime I shall forever be grateful for the experiences of my own Spring Break
This picture is not of our canal, but it is very similar minus the motorcycle.
