Springs

Our fifteen acres was blessed with numerous springs. We children enjoyed watching the water gurgle out of the ground. The one spring was located at the edge of our patch of woods and was the start of a creek that then meandered its way through the community till it was joined by several others and wound up in the Casselman River.

Another spring was in our front yard. It was really big and Daddy dug a ditch and laid pipes in it to direct the water into a tank in the pasture for our animals. He made that the overflow would run back into the creek from which it had been diverted. This spring had some of the coldest, sweetest water that could be found. Even in the summer it was cold enough that Mom would often float covered bowls of food to cool them off and keep them cold. An occasional watermelon would be placed in it at the shallow end to get crispy cold by evening when we would watch as Daddy would retrieve it and cut it open and we would sit on the front porch and enjoy eating it

There was a big slab stone beside the spring and we used to enjoy sitting on it and listen to the water and pretend we were fishing. If we were brave we would dip our toes in the water but it was so cold we didn't want to keep them in the water longer than a few seconds.

There were a few seasonal springs too. One of them was in the basement of the house. Whoever had built the house must have wanted to have a running spring there because there was a trough deal set up for a place for the water to run through and a drain at the end to guide it outdoors to the creek.

Several other springs were scattered throughout the pasture and the front yard under the chestnut tree. Daddy used to be glad once those dried up by summertime, but I was always sad since I thought you can never have too much water to play in or springs to watch.

One day when we came home from school we decided to play by the big spring until it was time to go make supper. As we sat on the slab we noticed something moving in the water. Upon looking closer we saw what appeared to be a crawdad. David got all excited and wanted to catch it to show it to Mom and Daddy. He leaned down and grabbed for it but the water was deeper and the crawdad faster than he gave either of them credit for. The next instant he fell in headfirst. As he tried to stand up John and I managed to grab hold of him and drag him out. We headed for the house where Mom met us at the door. She got David into dry clothes and John and I helped get supper on the table.

A few days later we were disappointed to hear that Daddy had plans to cover the spring. He didn't want anyone else falling into it. We were in school when they fixed it so that the water all ran underground until it reached the tank in the pasture.

It continued to be a source of great drinking water but it would no longer provide a place to chill watermelons and other food.