| A Quarter for a daring feat: Climb down into the well. |
I don’t know for sure how I survived my Cousin’s visits each summer. There seemed to be a favorite member of our family that they would always pick on and that person was me. This particular story also deals with one of those pranks.
Jack Skewes has always been one of my favorite cousins and I don’t know why because one of my earliest memories of him was when he challenged me to climb down into our well house. The well house was a cement box that about 8 to 10 foot deep and five foot by 6 or 7 foot wide. It was below ground and housed the pump and water tank that was the storage for the water when first pumped out of the well. It was a very dark place especially after the wooden lid was placed over the hole that was the access to the well house. Black Widow spiders seemed like the place a lot better than I did and for years I can recall on several occasions finding them in that hole along with other various species of spiders. I accepted the challenge because, well, I was trusting and he offered to give me a quarter which was more valuable than a bucket of gold to a young man of my tender years. I remember the fear that I had as I climbed down the wooden ladder that allowed access to the pump and the tank. I was almost to the bottom and victory when the wooden lid was slipped back over the entrance and I was submerged in total darkness with all those spiders ready for a hearty meal of a young man’s flesh. I quickly climbed back up the ladder only to find that the lid would not moved. Jack had put a heavy rock on the lid so that it wouldn’t move. My memory from that moment on was probably something that I have shoved deep into my subconscious memory bank since I have no recollection of how long I was in there before he had pity on me and removed the rock. I don’t remember if I cried but suspect that I probably did since I was not very brave nor have ever been since that time. I am sure the spiders were probably just as scared as I was as well but that wasn’t in my mind either. So why is he a favorite cousin, well, probably because he has also been there most of my life as a good friend as well as a cousin after the “rock on the well lid” incident.
Another version:
All for 25 cents
I have told in other stories about the fact that I had cousins from Bountiful who would spend their summer months in Duchesne living with Nana (Grandma Poulson) and often staying or visiting with us as well since we only lived a couple of miles out of town and were on a farm no less. I have also explained that I was often the target of pranks that they would devise in my behalf sine I was four years younger than my next older brother and 10 years younger than my oldest cousin.
It was my oldest cousin that pulled this prank on me and has since changed my life forever. (At least I like to blame it on him and hold no malice in so doing since we have become very good friends and I have gotten revenge many time over by taking his picture at every event we have ever attended just because I knew he didn’t like it either.) I must also explain that even though I did get an allowance of 10 cents or so once a month and maybe even more often, that to me at that time 25 cents was worth an awful lot. Candy was still sold for a penny a piece and so 25 pieces would go a long to satisfy a sugar need. I probably didn’t get to have all 25 pieces though since mother was very strict about our paying tithing first and so 3 cents would most likely have gone into my little yellow tithing bank. We also got our water from a well. The well house wasn’t an above ground building but rather a cement lined hole in the ground with a cement top minus room for a hole where the ladder would lean and we would gain access to the tank and pump below at about an 8 foot depth. It was very dark inside and consequently a handy spot for Black widow spiders with their lovely red hourglass marking on the bellies. I hated the well since you could barely move around the tanks and work in it. My cousin must have guessed that fact and thus dared me one day to go into the well. It took some convincing but the quarter that he offered finally made me bow into the pressure. He removed the heavy rock that was on the wooden lid of the well house and then the wooden lid as well so that I could climb down into the well. He watched as I went all the way to the bottom of the ladder and then kindly replaced the wooden lid complete with the heavy rock. I have absolutely no recollection of the length of my duration in that dark spider infested hole but was sure at the time that every black widow sharing it with me was headed my way to teach me about the importance of not invading their space. I did finally escape their vengeance unbitten to receive my 25 cent reward but to this day am a bit claustraphobic in caves and dark abyss where black widow spiders not only try to get revenge for my invading their domains but revenge for all the black widows I have killed so that they wouldn’t invade my domain either.
