Did ye ever see the likes o’ this?

I’m trying to translate the regular English expression, “Did you ever see anything like this?” into good old Ozark language, since it seems to me that a big Ozark event should be described in proper Ozark fashion. The answer to the question, in Ozark, is, “Naw, I ain’t never seen nothin’ like this here weather wur havin’ these days.” In regular English, you would say that I didn’t say that correctly - I used a double negative, I said ain’t, I should have said “ever” instead of “ain’t never” and I should have used “anything” instead of “nothin’.” But I garrantee that in Ozark thay ain’t nothin’ wrong with sayin’ I ain’t never seen nothin’ like it, ‘specially when we ain’t never seen nothin’ like it!

Ok, “ain’t never” is pretty broad, and someone may remember a year that was an exception, but in my 73 years I ain’t never seen nothin’ like this weather this week. I’m used to groaning in August about how nice it would be if we could save up some of the spring rains and let them fall in August. In August, I’m used to seeing the creeks bone dry, the hayfields cracked and brown, the pastures hurting formoisture, and the lawns burned up. I well remember when we took our great two-month vacation to California in the early summer of 1947. We had been accustomed to seeing green things growing in Idaho and Colorado and Wyoming, but when we rolled in home in mid-August, everything on the farm was dead and brown. It is astonishing this year on Aug. 8 to see grasses green and lush, and puddles of water all across the fi elds.

In my early days, Otter Creek almost always went dry on our place during the summer, and we had to fi nd ways to bring water to our cows. I especially remember the extra dry summers of 1953 and 1954, when I had a little two-wheeled trailer pulled behind our Ford tractor, loaded with fi ve 55-gallon barrels. I would go down to the spring running into Otter Creek at the Charles Day farm, dip water from the spring to fill all those barrels, then drive a mile home and dip out the water for the cows.

It amazed me how muchwater one cow could drink!

I could hardly keep up with all the dipping and pouring and dipping and pouring.

I guess I could have used siphon hoses to unload the water from the barrels, but I didn’t think of it back then.

Sometimes it seems that Mother Nature gets stuck on a thing and forgets how to get o◊it. When we are in the middle of a drought, as we thought we were in June and early July, things were drying up and the sky looked like Mother Nature had forgotten how to make rain. Then, in mid-July, she remembered the formula for rain, rehearsed it really well on July 20, and, since Aug, 1, we have had rain almost every day and night. Rain, rain, go away, come again some other day!

Over the past few days, Otter Creek has been full and running out of its banks, reaching well out into our alfalfa field, carrying fullsized trees downstream, brown water rushing and churning and foaming.

Years ago the old low-water bridge crossing Otter Creek on State Line Road at the Missouri line was upgraded with three large culverts enclosed in massive concrete. Yesterday, those pipes had plugged with debris, and water two feet deepwas pouring over the top of the concrete. All along Hayden Road, as we neared Missouri, we saw gravel washed across the road from the gush of water o◊the hillsides, and the fi elds along the creek were standing ankle-deep in water.

Water covered the road on the north side of the Jacket bridge by two feet and more, and the road was closed to tra◊c. Big Sugar Creek was a sight to see! From Kent Webb’s place, Big Sugar Creek looked like a large lake; not a creek. I hear that Little Sugar Creek south of town also rose up and flooded the golf course. It always seems a little strange to me that we have the Big Sugar Golf Course on Little Sugar Creek, but I guess this proves that Little Sugar can get big at times, too.

What’d you say was the forecast for tomorrow?

Rain? In all my borned days I ain’t never seen the likes of this!

◊◊◊

Editor’s note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is an award-winning columnist, a retired Methodist minister with a passion for history. He is vice president of the Pea Ridge Historical Society. He can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected], or call 621-1621.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 08/14/2013