FLOOD WATERS CAUSED BY SPRINGTIME RAIN in Naperville

Spring is a time for seeing daffodils and tulips poking through the ground, robins hopping on grass starting to turn green, and droves of Naperville residents heading south for Spring Break.  When I was a kid, we called it Easter Break.  It started on Good Friday and ran through the following week.  Back in April 1961, when I was in fifth grade at the two-room Granger School, I didn't get to take a trip out of town, but I did get to go swimming.

Mom and Dad had already left for work when I woke up and looked out the kitchen window.  Then I ran upstairs and busted into my little brother's bedroom.  "Kurt!  Wake up!  You HAVE to look outside!"

From a torrential downpour the night before, the cornfields on the west side of Naperville-Plainfield Road had flooded, creating a huge lake behind our house.  In the morning sunlight, the water was shining and the surface was rippling in irresistible currents.  "Come on, Kurt," I said impatiently, "let's go swimming!"

When we couldn't find last year's swimsuits, which were probably too small anyway, I suggested we wear our underwear.  Out here in the country, there wouldn't be anyone to see us anyway.  Minutes later, Kurt and I were racing through the backyard and splashing in the two-foot high water.  Our feet sunk deep in the soft wet mud, but we didn't care.  This was fun!  We laid down in the water and moved our hands and legs, pretending to swim.  We took turns grabbing underneath each other's shoulders to twirl each other around.  Then I started wishing we had a raft or a boat.

Hey, we did have a boat in the backyard.  Well, it really was a coffin-shaped wooden box that Dad used for mixing cement, but today it would make the most perfect boat for us.  I attached a rope to the front and pulled Kurt back and forth across our lake.  Then we switched places and I had a turn.  Many hours later, with our white undershirts and underpants now a dirty, dingy shade of black, we headed back to the house, totally thrilled from having been able to go swimming.

After the flood waters receded and Uncle Pete had a chance to do surveillance of the damage to the cornfields, Mom got a phone call.