Sometime during my sixth grade year, the rats came. We had a rat infestation. An unhealthy rat plague! I recall this as one of the most frustrating years of my mother's and my life. Let me whine again about those rats! I do not know if you have ever been involved with a rat infestation of this magnitude,so let me tell you about the situation.

When the rats first appeared in the North Texas area, we thought they would go away quickly, but boy were we wrong! They just multiplied. We became concerned for our health and fitness. One Friday night, we headed to a football game. Driving to the game, there were a constant flow of rats scurrying across the road and squishing under our tires. They were everywhere! I am sure we sent many to the "Happy Rat Land" that night! It was then we realized we were in for a rat campaign siege.

I had a .22 caliber rifle, so I stocked up with ammunition and became a hunting machine. I killed as many rats as I had bullets. I would invite my friends who were having the same rat problem as my family, and we would see who could kill the most rats. There were so many, you could kill them with a garden hoe if you were fast enough!

One of the techniques I found that worked well in killing the rats was to take a 5 gallon bucket and bury it about half way into the ground. I then filled the can half way with water. After filling with water, I sprinkled bread pieces onto the water. I planted three or four of these cans at different locations around our yard. I would check this the next morning before going to school to collect and throw away all the rats that had drowned in the water. They wanted that bread and climbed in and drowned. Ingenious wasn't it?

You can criticize my methods of killing those rodents, but have you ever smelled the stench from a rat dying under your house? We lived in a home that was built using a pier and beam method. This left plenty of crawl room under the house. The rats definitely took advantage of this shelter, and they also met the "rat maker" there to die.

I am not sure if anyone became ill from those rats. I hope not, but finally they just left! Maybe, the rats became tired of dodging me and my friends bullets. All I know is when the rats were gone, we celebrated the rat evacuation with glee!