The fence tool rose and fell, rose and fell, the sharp end punching into the earth. Whump! Whump! They were digging to China. Kay was 8, Jimmy was 7, and Debby was 5. They attended Sunbeam School, a one-room schoolhouse where they were all taught by Mrs. Rose Danburg. While she was teaching one class, the other students had their own work to do. However, if they got done quickly enough, they could listen in to what Mrs. Danburg was teaching other students.
The three had learned in school that China was on the other side of the planet. But that didn’t make any sense in Debby’s mind. How could they keep from falling off if they were hanging upside down on the bottom of the earth? The whole idea that the earth was round was quite bizarre to her thinking anyway. It was obvious that the earth was flat. All she had to do was look.
And Debby did look. The rhythmic “whump, whump, whump” of the digging was her backdrop as she stared out over the flat land that surrounded the farm. The biggest change in the elevation of the level fields and pastures was the earthen berm that resulted from the dugout, a sizable hole in the ground, which had been excavated to store water for the livestock to drink. Being possessed with an active and creative imagination, Debby tried to puzzle out this news about the planet. It was intriguing. Even more intriguing was the idea that somewhere down there underneath her feet, was an entirely different group of people.
She’d seen pictures of those people in her book. They wore strange clothes. The clothing looked more like pajamas than anything else. Apparently those people wore their pajamas all day, in the middle of the day! They wore conical straw hats. Debby could see how those hats would keep the sun off. Daddy wore a straw cowboy hat in the summer. But why were their hats such an odd shape?
Those people were called Chinese. They all seemed to be very short. They walked funny. Their names were really odd - Chin Yee? Their eyes were a lot different. They didn’t know how to farm. They didn’t have tractors. Their fields were full of water, and you cannot farm in water. You would just get stuck all the time. Their language was the strangest thing she had ever heard. Why didn’t they just talk like everyone else?
The biggest question remained: How did they keep from falling off the earth? Debby knew about falling. She knew that the sky was up and the ground was down and that you could not stand in the sky. You had to be on the ground. How did those Chinese people do it?
Dad had told the kids that if you dug a hole deep enough into the ground, you would go through to see those Chinese people. Whump! Whump! Whump! Whump!
Debby's mind boggled at the image. She could see her head popping up, like a gopher out of its hole, and seeing strange looking people in conical straw hats hanging on the underside of the earth, upside down! It was impossible to comprehend, except in the magical thinking of children.
Kay was the designated digger, probably because she was oldest and biggest. She held the fence tool in both hands and swung it energetically. Whump! Whump! Whump! The tool had various parts to perform various functions for fence building or repair. There was a wire cutter, a hammer, and a pointed end to pull staples out of the post. That sharp end was their digging tool.
| Fencing tool. Note the sharp, pointed end to the right. |
All three children were gathered around the hole, now about 4-5 inches deep. Kay was vigorously swinging the tool above her head, and then bringing in down into the hole with all of her eight year old strength. Jimmy was across from her watching closely and eagerly awaiting the moment, certainly near at hand, when the punch through to China would occur. Whump! Whump!
Debby was on the side between her big sister and brother, but she was a bit distracted from the excitement. There was a tin toy car on the other side of the hole, maybe a foot away. It was one of the nicer toy cars, one that Debby never got. Jimmy or Kay always got the best cars, and Debby got the clunkiest, ugliest ones with the least paint left on them. This car was a pretty blue, had all its paint, and was not bent up or dented. This could be her chance to get it and play with it while the other two were focused on digging to China.
Debby considered the hard, pointed tool that was rising and falling between her and the car. Whump! Whump! She gave all the in-depth thought a five year old can. Here she was, there was the car over there. In between was the fencing tool with its sharp point digging into the ground. Whump! Whump! Whump! What to do? What to do? Debby thought she could time it right so that she could reach across quickly, snatch the car with her hand, and pull it back before the tool fell again. She could have the car!
Debby waited a moment, watching Kay swing the fence tool, noticing Jimmy's focus on the soon-to-be-revealed China . . . . . Whump! Whump! . . . and reached for the car! Whuck!
Well, she tried to, but her timing was very poor. Kay lodged the tool in the back side of Debby's wrist with her next swing. There was a shocked silence while Kay pulled the tool back and Debby looked at the hole in her wrist. Debby was surprised to see that her wrist was white in there. She had always thought one's insides were very colorful. Then blood began to flow into the hole in her wrist, and the children sprang to action, China instantly forgotten.
Kay began shouting in a frightened voice, "Mommy! Mommy! Debby is bleeding all over!" Jimmy ran to the house to get mom, shouting as he went too. Debby burst into tears and got up to run to the house, which was only a few feet, when mom met her at the steps.
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Now, at age 58, I have to look real hard to see the scar on the back of my wrist. It's about a quarter inch long, and thin enough to blend in with the wrinkles. I think it might have been a half inch deep, but so narrow that I'm pretty sure there were no stitches. Or I should say, no stitch. It was minor, but one of those moments that registered clearly in my memory.
By the way, it was a long time before I realized I ought to give up on the digging to China thing.
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