My Chauncelot Expirence

I don’t know if anyone reads Life in Chauncelot by Danielle and Mason; if not you really should check it out. Danielle is the main blogger in the family and tells some pretty good stories about living in a well… unusual little town. A town that I happened to grow up in. So, I thought I might add some of my own stories from when I lived there as a small child.
There are a couple of stories that come to mind all involving “high water”.
When I was just about 7 years old, I remember the water coming up pretty high, but not high enough that we had to leave our home. So, my parents stayed in the house with my sister and I. We didn’t have to leave, but we couldn’t really go anyplace either as the water came right up to our front porch.
We were sitting on the porch with my several of my uncles and my grandfather who had rowed their boat over to check on us and make sure we had enough supplies i.e. water, batteries, and food. Across the street their was a young man that had lived their for as long as I can remember… and might still. I’m going to call him Tom. He was a pretty heavy guy at the time. Well, I guess he was tired of sitting in the house. So, he was climbing into a row boat and declared to my family that he was going to get some donuts from the “store” in town. We watched closely as the boat rocked back and forth while made his way into the boat. We continued watching in awe as he labored heavily to row the boat. The “store” is about a mile or so from the house. My family stayed on the porch waiting for Tom to return with his donuts. It took much longer than we expected; I guess he really wanted those donuts. When he finally returned with his donuts he was very proud of his accomplishment. In fact, he had already opened the package and had started eating them. But as Tom stood up to exit the boat, it began rocking pretty badly. Tom had to sadly stand by as the donuts fell from his hand and into the nasty flood water. Tom looked bewilderedly into the water as his donuts floated away. I am not proud to say this, but my uncles and grandfather thought this was the funniest thing ever to happen. One uncle began shouting “Hey Dunkin’ Donuts”! Tom worked his way out of the boat and back into his house…. Without his donuts. He has ever since been known as Dunkin’ Donuts.

The other flood memory I have is when once again the water came up. This time so high we had to go stay with my aunt and uncle “on the hill”. They had a lovely, but smaller home at the time. With all 10- 15 of us in the house and of course, all our pets, it got pretty crowded. I happened to have three ducks. Apparently, we ran out of space because somehow the ducks got out and went for a swim in the flood water. A neighbor several streets over found the ducks in her backyard. The good neighbor loaded the ducks up in her row boat and brought them back to me. I was so happy to see them!
I believe it was after this flood (I was about 9 at the time) I decided to “interview” the neighbors about how the flood effected them and what they thought should be done to prevent this from continuing to happen. I walked around town with my mom’s video camera and asked questions of the neighbors. Nobody seemed to mind that I was only 9. They answered their doors and answered my questions as though they might just appear on the news!