Most people wouldn’t consider this to be a fond childhood memory, but I do.

As a child, I was such a tomboy. Actually, I still am, or so I like to think. Anyway, if it was a warm and sunny day, I was running and playing outside. As my Mamaw Jo used to say about me, “I swannie, she goes wide open.” I think that meant I was running with everything I had. If so, she was right, I was.

I especially liked running “barefooted” in the summer. It was a sense of freedom for me, but unfortunately, I didn’t look down at the ground enough. I don’t how many times my foot landed in a pile of “squish.” Dog squish that is. You see, we always had dogs. And of course, they left squishy deposits across our yard, my grandparents’ yard, and all over Papaw’s farm.

The first time it happened, I was horrified and disgusted. It was one of the few times I squealed. My mom told me, “I used to do that too and it’s okay. Just wipe your foot off in the grass and get off what you can. For the stuff stuck between yours toes, go to the well and run water over them.” She was right, it worked.

Every time I split a pile open, I would wipe my nasty foot in the grass. Then I limped over to the well since I didn’t want my squishy toes touching the ground. It felt too weird and icky. As for the well, it sat between my parents’ house and my grandparents’ farm house. Its walls were concrete block that stood about 2 feet above the ground. It also had a rusty tin roof. The spigot was around three feet tall and faced my grandparents’ kitchen window.

With one hand on the tall spigot, I would hold out my foot under the cold running water. It was such a cool and tingling relief. Once my foot was clean, I placed my face into the cold stream at the spigot and took a big sip of water. The water felt so good running down my heated face. If it was really hot, I would also wet my hair. Naturally I would take off running again. Sometimes I would hit 2 or 3 piles in one day. I’m sure my Mamaw Girdle/Myrtle and Mamaw Jo watched me from the kitchen window and laughed each time I was at the well.

I wasn’t the only one to do this. Lots of times my friends and cousins who came over to play would also step into squish. After laughing at their distress, I told them the same thing my mom told me.

I guess you can say washing squish from between your toes at the well became a rite of passage in our family.

“And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.” Revelation 1:5 (KJV)

Well water may wash away dog squish from between your toes, but only the blood of Christ can wash away your sins. Are yours washed away?

Brooke Cox is an author, speaker, and storyteller. Also, she is a member of Toastmasters and will be attending storytelling camp again for the 4th summer. She was a 2016 Selah Awards Finalist for Debut Novel. And she has two books out in her storytelling series: “Saucy Southern Stories.” The Amazon links for her books may be found on her website: brookecoxstories.com. Please feel free to contact her. She would love to hear from you.