A Story from Childhood: Mud Pies

What is history without a story from childhood? Each of us has a fond memory that perhaps either directly or indirectly connects our lives in some way to past historical events.

Mine is a story of mud. . .

When I was a little girl

I loved to eat dirt

My favorite recipe, mud pies—

One cup water, two cups Mother Earth

When I think about it now

"Was I completely insane?"

If asked to eat it today

I would say, "Never again!"

One memorable day at school

My teacher read a story out loud

A story about a soldier

That made me grin both inside and out

His story was a story of mud

"Reddish brown mud, blackish mud, gray mud

Soggy mud, dried up mud, hopeless mud

Even suck-your-shoe-off-your-foot mud. . .

Mud all over his pants and his boots

Mud in his water and mud in his food

Woolen blankets coated with caked mud

So stiff they wouldn't do anyone good. . .

Mud so think guns sand to their axles

Mules disappeared without a trace

Once a soldier stuck deep in the mud

Used his musket to mark his place"

This soldier fought

Alongside many who died

In civil war

Filled with hardship and pride

Now as I reminisce of my days with mud

On my face, clothes, socks, even shoes

I think about this lonely Union soldier

With his mud pies amidst the blues

©2012

Sharla Lee Shults