The other day Mistress Elizabeth was feeling a bit grumpy. It was an absolutely beautiful warm day...just the kind of day you want to spend outside basking in all the warmth. Instead she had to go to school and teach her little ones the fine art of writing and reading. With the Massachusetts standards in play and high stakes testing even for kindergarten, time outside is limited...a mere ten minutes of recess. If I know anything about 5 and 6 year olds, they need more then ten minutes to run and jump and play hop scotch. But some guy named George W. says "time on learning is important" and "no child should be left behind". Left behind what, I ask? Shouldn't little kids have the opportunity to be curious about the natural world? Mistress Elizabeth loved in years past to take her little ones hiking through the forest, exploring new worlds, looking for squirrel nests and rabbit holes. She liked them to lay down in a bed of green moss and look up at the clouds and imagine all sorts of things...but that my dear friend is not in the Standards! So instead, when she comes home, it is to me she turns because she knows, I, unlike her children, do not have to adher to any standards and so I am the one that benefits from her need to explore the unknown.
So that day, when Mistress Elizbeth came home from school, she says to me, "Hey, Tuck, are you ready for an adventure?" I run through the house and get my lease because in Carver there is a law that on a public road, your dog has to be restrained. She only puts it on for a mere few minutes till we cross the small road in front of our house and then like clock work I turn to her and she releases me to run free. I run along the dirt path beside the cranberry bogs and then down into the ditches to see if I can make any frogs jump? I soon grow tired of this activity...those frogs are just too smart for me! Then I find a muskrat hole...but nobody is home. So, I run up the hill on the side of the bog and scamper into the cool forest before me....Mistress Elizabeth follows...but at her own pace.
We follow the path through the woods till we get on the far side of the reservoir and then we meander along a small stream that flows from another reservoir down the line. At this point, I spy something in the brambles on the ground. Bones, bones, bones everywhere.
I can't believe my good luck and bark loudly to let Mistress Elizabeth know that I have found something of interest. Before she even get to me I find a nice femur...but then again it might not be a femur...and I start cracking it apart. Mistress Elizabeth says, " Tuck, no, it could be human bones. Wait...". But I just ignore her...these are deer bones...I certainly can tell one bone from another and these are definitely deer bones!
Convinced that I know what I'm talking about, she sits down and picks up a rib bone and starts to examine it. That's what is funny about that ole girl of mine...here are some wonderful bones and she just looks at them. How silly can that be???
Ohhhh...these bones are delicious....
"Stop taking pictures...and dig into all these bones" I tell my mistress...but once again she doesn't listen to me!
She's too busy snapping pictures with that silly thing Will gave her!
But that's alright...if she doesn't like to munch on bones, that means all the more for me! And that really makes me smile...what a good day this has been for me!
Maybe, just maybe, the best day in my life. Not everyday do you win the lottery...the lottery of bones!
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Comments: 31
Deb H., I loved your story...subsistence hunting is ok in my books after all I lived with the Yu'pik people for more then eight years, and they like your grandparents utilized the whole animal. I do have problems with Trophy Hunters....though. And yes, I have eaten venison, reindeer, seals and walrus meat....though not in many years.
Rob, You can come bone hunting with us anytime...glad you like the simple pleasures in life like Mistress Elizabeth.
I feel just as strongly as you do that children need more free time to explore nature. I also love seeing the pictures of you on the walk that turned up such a treasure trove of bones. I liked your comments, too. You're lucky to be living with a great lady with an even greater imagination.
We walked, explored woods and rocks and streams, played imaginative games, laid in the grass, climbed trees, sang songs, picked blueberries, ran with our dogs, and simply lived. Then, we'd be called inside to eat a healthy dinner that tasted SO good, because there wasn't alot of junk food and we were really, really hungry! (let me rephrase this, there was NO junk food in the house).
Today I see children organized to death with afterschool activities that are just taking every minute of play time away. While I believe sports, band, dance, piano, drama club, etc are all fantastic venues for kids, I also believe that they need time to just be kids. I did none of these things after school (except piano lessons, I guess) and ended up being just fine. More than fine. Ended up being a good family man with a healthy adoration of nature. I still love to just be outside, elbows deep in the garden, soaking in every little nuance of every season. I want my grandsons to have the same benefit, so we spend lots of time just playing, just being, just listening to the wind.
Thanks for a wonderful romp through the woods. Love your doggie!
Thanks for stopping by Cheryl.
Agree with you completely on the wonder of how children grew up in the 50's and 60's. I, too, spent many summer days swimming, berry picking, hiking, reading, playing monopoly, building villages in the woods, hunting for frogs, having turtle races, etc...and all of it was organized by us kids. My Mom used to throw us out after breakfast...then she'd feed us lunch under the weeping willow tree...and we really never went inside till supper. We had great adventures.
And a comment about Aaron's comment: I had never thought about it but I guess we hardly HAD junk food when I was a child. I guess the closest we got was on the rare occasions when we made popcorn. We hardly ever had any kind of candy and hamburger stands didn't come to my hometown until I was in high school. What a difference!
You and Aaron are right...there was no money for junk food back then. As kids that is one of the things we loved about the Fourth of July. Dad would bring all of us (the cousins included) to the Plymouth Fourth of July parade in the morning and we would be treated to a fudgicle on the way home if we said we were "caca heads"! Then after the fire works, Dad would bring us all to have a small ice cream at the John Alden Shoppe across from Plymouth Rock. Imagine two treats in a day...we thought we were millionaires!
School will be out soon. On the first day of summer vacation we would start to build a new treehouse.