Monday, February 4, 2013

"Memories of childhood were the dreams that stayed with you after you woke"

Quote by Julian Barnes, author

This post is dedicated to my maternal grandfather, without whom this memory wouldn't exist.

Picture this: it's a warm summer day and you and your family are visiting your grandparents.  They live on a farm complete with a beautiful house, barn, playground for you and your cousins to play on, and a greenhouse.  If you walk past the barn and continue on into the woods, you will find yourself on a path through the trees.  Waiting for you at the end of the path is a pond.  The pond is affectionately known to you as the Beaver Pond.  

In my childhood, I have spent countless summer days at this farm and made countless memories here.  However, the memory I would like to share with you now is the treasure hunts my grandpa sent me, my cousins, and my brother on.  

Now ask yourself this: what do you think the best part of these treasure hunts were? Think about it carefully.  Okay, I'm guessing you said the treasure.  Shockingly, that isn't the case.  My favorite part about these treasure hunts was the hunting.

This is how the treasure hunts worked.  My grandpa would drive all over the farm taking close up polaroid pictures of various objects.  Each picture was accompanied by a riddle.  He would then give us the first clue and picture.  We would read the clue together and as soon as we figured out, we'd get giddy with excitement.  "The bird feeder! Its at the bird feeder!" Then, we would take off running to find the next clue. It's been many years since the last treasure hunt, but if I remember correctly, the last clue would always lead us to the same place: a chest my grandpa kept in the barn.  In the chest, we would find cool frisbees, kites, water guns, and other various outdoor activities.

As my brother, cousins and I grew older, my grandpa increased the number of clues.  At one point, I think he eliminated the pictures from the equation, though I'm not sure about that because it has been so long.  Anyway, I remember that sometimes he would lead us on a wild goose chase.  One clue would take us all the way to the beaver pond and then all the way back to the house.  A couple of clues later, we would be led back to the beaver pond.  I remember how we would groan and run back to the pond.  Now that I think back on it, I laugh because my grandpa can be quite the jokester and he had to get his kicks some way, ha ha.  

This is by far one of my most treasured childhood memories.  Not only was it fun, but it got us to be active.  Nowadays, children stay indoors, spending countless hours in front of a television, playing video games or watch t.v.  I was fortunate to have a grandpa who took the time to set this treasure hunt up in order to get us active.  Children today definitely need to get outside more.  Therefore, when I have children of my own, I intend to take a page out of my grandpa's playbook and send my own children on a treasure hunt.

"Grandfathers are magicians who create wonderful memories for their grandchildren" - anitapoems.com

1 comment:

  1. Hey Liz, I liked this one a lot. Broght back memories for me and Gramdma also.

    Grandpa

    ReplyDelete

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