Thirty years or so ago in House Springs, Mo., they were having a big party celebrating the opening of the Walmart in that community.
There were going to be games, prizes dropped from a helicopter, a parade and an old-time jumping frog contest.
My son Mike was about 8 years old at the time and heard at his school that there were kids that were going to register their frog.
The grand prize of $10 for the frog that could jump the furthest. The teacher even read the story of the Celebrated Jumping Frog by Samuel Clemens.
Mike came home and was excited about finding a frog to register and start training for the race.
The big party and the race was two weeks away and every night Mike would go down to the little creek and look for a jumping frog.
Mike brought many different amphibians home including toads, salamanders and many frogs but not longer than an inch.
Since Mike was so excited in getting a frog registered for the race, he continually asked if I knew where we could find a suitable frog for racing.
At the time we were living in House Springs near a pond in the woods that loud croaking frogs could be heard at night, but he had exhausted every try in capturing a frog big enough.
As the days passed Mike became more and more impatient that he did not have a frog to register for the jumping contest.
Mike checked out books on frogs and found as many pictures about frog racing as he could. I was very proud of him doing all this work and it made me want to find a frog for him.
Two days before the race on a Thursday afternoon I was driving home from work and saw a pond I had never seen before. It is amazing how things pass your eyes by when you have no need of that object.
I stopped the car and walked toward the pond and what in front of my wandering eyes and ears did appear, a chorus of croaking frogs!
There must have been a dozen of them. Unfortunately, the frogs were invisible except for their eyes and nose sticking above the 6 inches to 12 inches of water they were floating in all around the pond.
It took more than an hour of stomping around the pond in my leather shoes, and dress pants, until I caught one and placed it between my starched white shirt and my undershirt.
When I got the frog home Mike was looking very disappointed from coming home from his hunting trip to the woods pond.
When I pulled the frog out of my shirt his eyes lit up and a smile came upon his face. The frog was not a large one but it made the salamander and toad look like real losers.
He wanted to go immediately to the closed city hall and register his frog for the race on Saturday.
After explaining there would be no one there at city hall, my wife said she would register “Herman” the Frog, the next morning after she put Mike on the school bus.
That night “Herman” was treated to the best crickets, moths, and bugs around. He was handled until his skin became dry and he looked uncomfortable.
I then insisted he had had enough training and we didn’t want to get him overly tired, so we put him to bed in a shoe box with a saucer of water.
Herman was trained in the same manner the next night in hopes that all this attention would get him ready to win the $10 grand prize for the race the next day.
The big day came and we packed up the whole family and went to beautiful downtown House Springs for the festivities.
We got our hot dogs and Kool-Aid, the helicopter dropped the prizes stuffed inside balloons. There were drawings and coupons given out and then it was time for the “Great Frog Jumping Contest”!
All the participants were to gather on the outside of a chalk circle about 25 feet in diameter.
Each participant was to hold onto their frog until the bell rang, and the first frog to enter the center of the marked ring after the bell would win the $10.
The excitement was building and the “Ready Set Go” and the bell rang. The frogs jumped all over except for Herman and the frog next to him.
The boys slapped the ground behind the frogs and hollered at the frogs with no avail; the frogs refused to move.
The neighboring frog trainer finally stood up and stomped behind his frog and got him to at least get off the starting mark.
Herman was the only frog that had not jumped from the starting point (probably not enough training).
Mike then stood up and got ready to scare Herman off his starting mark like his neighbor got his frog to jump.
Unfortunately, Herman was unable to jump after the initial jolt to his back with Mike’s shoe. Poor Herman’s eyes and tongue was protruding from his head and he was declared out of the competition because he was permanently stuck to the black top of the racing ring.
Mike stood looking at his racing mate for a while then looked up at me. I told Mike that he did his best and maybe we could train the next frog even better.
We all went home with our prizes and admitted we all had a great time.
(Bob Brennecke lives in Ballwin, Mo., and can be reached at robertbrennecke@hotmail.com.)
