Ooey, Gooey Mud

What is it about mud that is so appealing to boys? Three out of my four sons like it so much that I wonder if they aren’t destined to be mud wrestlers. The other son is no clean freak, but at least he doesn’t like to wallow in it the way his brothers do. And it seems they aren’t the only young men who enjoy getting dirty. Boys of all ages like to get down and dirty. Once a year at our local high school all the boys who own trucks hold a “who can get their truck the dirtiest” contest. You wouldn’t believe how much mud can stick to a truck.

Yesterday after church I was walking alongside a boy who is about the same age as our 11-year-old twins.

“Lincoln,” I asked, “what are you going to do this afternoon?”

“I guess I’ll ride my dirt bike, if Dad will let me,” he said.

“It’s awfully muddy out. Aren’t you afraid you’ll get dirty?”

He grinned at me. “Getting muddy is part of the fun.”

“What’s fun about it?” I asked.

“It’s ooey-gooey and squishy,” he said.

That’s precisely why I don’t like it.

Even my oldest son, who should have outgrown his love for dirt by now, still likes to play in the mud. This morning he asked me if I would drive him to pick up the tractor.

“I thought the tractor was in the barn,” I said, puzzled by his request.

“I had to take it to get my truck,” he said.

“I thought your truck was in the driveway.”

“I sort of got it stuck in the mud last night.”

“How stuck is sort of stuck?”

“Deep enough that it needed a tractor to pull it out, but by the time I got there the phone company had used their bulldozer to pull it out. They were laying cable and I guess it was in the way.”

Thank goodness for kind-hearted phone workers.

I love the boys who love the mud, so I guess I’ll continue to follow them around with a broom, and a mop, and a bucket. After all, this is April and everyone knows that April showers bring May flowers…and more mud.