By Steve MoodyAge of writer in story 5-9 years old, we played this game many times.
Very early I enjoyed the many fun play games of country boy living. I had older brothers and cousins living within a mile or so of each other, so we had lots of really cool places to play and explore near our houses.
One of the best was Granny and Grandad Moody’s yard.
In close proximity to each other were three barns, large (the Big Barn) medium (the little barn) shed smaller than the little barn, and the smoke house. The smokehouse also had storage for canned food and a chest freezer for meat. There was a tack room and a covered area where lawn mower, yard and garden tools, with a fish/wild game/chicken cleaning area.
All year long this group of boys would get together to play tag, climb on the hay bales, chase and lots of dirt clod battles.
The Big Barn was big, at one time in the 1930-40’s, the largest barn in Pemiscot County. About 50 feet tall 50 feet wide and 80 feet long, it had a silver roof and red barn sides. Two levels, with seed, feed, tool rooms and a large animal shelter on the ground level. A water trough, and hay mangers were scattered along three walls. The hay mangers could be filled from the second floor of the barn, which made great secret access points from ground level to second, at least for the bigger boys. The barn had stairs from ground floor to the second for shorter people and others not brave enough to climb up the hay manger poles.
The clod battles began by picking teams of 3 or 4 players, with each team getting one of the 2 youngest players, me or my cousin Denny. Then the 2 teams were going to be defenders of the fort, or attackers.
The attackers had the advantage of having unlimited ammo, dirt clods, and being able to dodge the clods. A disadvantage was they had no protection, standing outside the fort in a plowed field in the open. Good targets for the defenders, located on the second floor by the hay door, where hay bales were loaded and unloaded in the barn. They also had to get close to the defenders to hit them with a clod, putting them at risk of being hit by a defender, who was above them throwing down and could throw further.
Defenders of the fort had the advantages of wooden barn walls for protection, being above the attackers, so being able to see and throw better and longer.
The dirt clod ammo itself was different sizes, sometimes very hard, sometimes not. Depended on how long they had dried in the sun, or how wet they were. If a player was hit by a thrown clod, it could hurt!
The attackers threw the clods at the defenders on the upper floor. The defenders at the attacking force on the ground. The attackers could dodge the clod missiles easily the further away from the forts defenders, but they had better luck if they were closer where clod speed and accuracy was better.
If a player was hit, they were “out”, supposedly, but not always as cheating on both sides was rampant. When all the players on one team were out, the other team was the winner.
The role of the two youngest players were ammo carriers. Each would gather clods for their team and pile it near them. If an ammo carrier got hit he was out. If a defender ran out of ammo, they could use corn cobs or mud dauber nests instead. They ran out often.
These battles lasted from a few minutes to half a day. There were breaks when the action slowed down, then flare up depending on the supply of ammo. Hours and hours of fun, with no memory of serious injury. Players could try and sneak up on the enemy by climbing down or up the hay manger poles.
Little people could get stuck by getting scared to climb higher or lower, but they eventually were successful or rescued by another player.
This is the dirt clod story as best I can remember.
