Coming from an hillbilly town pays off big time when it is city
celebration time. Every year in the fall the town would but on
activities for Cherry Days, later changed to orchard days because the
other orchards got jealous. There was a parade, car show, fair,
beauty pageant, mud digs and rodeo. I will tell you a little about
what went on at all of these events but first I want to cover the
most important because it is the most awesome – the mud dig. The
mud dig is when the local fire department makes a mud ditch about
twenty feet wide, three feet deep and 300 feet long. Competitors in
several categories of vehicle would rev up at the starting end and
then be judged on how well their car, truck, four wheeler or
motorcycle went before it got stuck. The spectators got really drunk
and sat in the sun and cheered wildly so the situation was win-win.
The person going the furthest through the mud was awarded prizes and
money so the competition was fierce. People from Santaquin love money
so that was a good incentive. You know who else loved money? Me. Yes
constant reader your author was deeply motivated by the prospect of
found or won money so when the announcers called for all of the young
men younger than twelve to line up I was sure that my pure white hot
love of money would push my body through the mud and in to the loving
arms of the twenty dollar bill that was taped to a fence post at the
other end. The single went up and I ran as hard and as fast as I
could and found out why the cars and trucks had so much trouble
getting through the mud. It was wet and deep and muddy. I slogged to
a stop a hundred or so feet from the glory and reward of the currency
and exited mud pit left and walked home with the mud caking to my
legs. When I got home my mom didn't even care that my feel-bads were
hurt by loosing and all she could focus on was the fact that I had
begged her to let me wear my new school clothes to look cool and then
ran through the mud in them. I couldn't help but think that winning
the twenty dollars may have taken the sting out of her reprove. A
twenty usually did.
