Part of a series inspired by Ross Gay
that starts here:
There were years, when our family of four, would head to Idaho's Cascade Reservoir, to join up with members of my family. This was during our tenting phase. I nearly typed 'days', but then realized those tents lasted for several years--no, I won't go back and count just for y'all.
The camping location, had everything to do with my parents and their love of Idaho and perch and my maternal family. I may have gotten the order of their reasons wrong, but you get the idea. A familiar location may call out to us for years: "come back!, your friends and family are here!, we need you!".
One of those years, during the full reign of the offspring and cousins', "Bodily Function Club", we noticed some strange happenings in the mornings. Perhaps it had to do with that particular campsite. It wasn't our usual.
We kept a Rubbermaid tub outside the tent flap. It's where we stored the family footwear and also provided a place to sit while putting on or removing shoes. Tho the kids didn't always make that extra effort to place their shoes inside the tub at night and I didn't always do it for them.
And then, one morning, one of the 'child alarms' went off, as they were crawling out of their sleeping bags and getting ready for the day.
"WHO TOOK MY OTHER SHOE?!"
The adults working on breakfast, probably made distracted suggestions on where to look and to have the others check to see if they had matching pairs on their feet. But no. That shoe was gone . . . until later in the day, when someone (another camper, maybe?) found it yards away from our site.
After that, more attention was paid to the proper storage of shoes at night. And thanks to G'ma's open ears and relationships with other RVers, the mystery was solved soon after. There was a mischievous fox, who liked shoes and pancakes. Huh, maybe the shoes were held hostage until the pancakes were handed over? Too fanciful? Never! What a shame we never got a photo.
No comments:
Post a Comment