I'm sitting here this morning, coffee in hand, house empty. It's beautiful sunny morning. For some unknown reason, my mind has drifted back to my late grade-school days. I think it's a joy and a privlege of age to have all of these little memories floating around. In a quiet moment you can just reach out and snatch one form the air, sit back and enjoy your own little movie.
I was just thinking about my step-brother, Gary and some of our adventures.
After reading "Huck Finn" in school (I believe the 5th or 6th grade) we agreed that it would be really "cool" to build a raft and ride off into the great unknown. This didn't just turn out to be two boys banging a couple of bent nails into some wood and givin' her a try. No, we spent as I remember, weeks designing this vessel. It started out with us wanting to cut down trees in the back woods and roping them together and went all the way to having a small cabin with a (what we thought at the time) sofisticated toilet/plumbing system. You know how kids dream.
Well, we settled on a series of innertubes, tied together with boards on top for a floor. We built a wooden rudder and cut two long poles like "Huck" had to guide us through the shallows. Mom offered to throw some food together for us but we weren't having it.....it was our adventure, after all. We knew there was only one meal that would suit. Peanut butter on wonder bread! A man's meal! I wonder what went through her mind watching us busy ourselves for the launching.
The morning had finally arrived to set sail. Let me describe our little world at that time. We grew up in Oregon. Born and raised. The last five years or spent in a town called Medford. Very near the northern California border and right smack dab on the interstate 5 corridor. Medford, in the summer, was hell on earth. It was hot! Sometimes hitting 110 to 112 degrees. The town sits in the Rogue Valley in the middle of the Cascade Mountains. Because of the semi-arrid climate the valley was loaded with fruit orchards and to accomidate these orchards, there was a large irrigation ditch that circled the valley. It was cut into the side of the foot hills with a service road beside. This road turned out to be a favorite bicycle path for the local kids.
Anyway.....the day had come to set float. We checked our provisions, hiked up to the ditch where we had built the raft and proudly pushed her into the water. IT WORKED!!! That was the look on Mom's face. Of course we never had a doubt. Off we went, full of expectations. It was just like we'd read. We even pulled a couple of long pieces of dried grass to chew on. I remember laying on my back with my feet hanging in the water and making facesout of the few clouds that braved the heat. My step-brother and I cemented a long, strong friendship that day. We told lies (stories),laughed at each other's stupid jokes and wondered about a million things. One thing we did have was presence of mind.....to appreciate the day and what we had and what we had done.
It's funny, to think back now and try to put such a simple experience, one of many in a young boys life, into perspective. To try to tell it in such a way that you see what I saw. Some of you do it very well.
Getting back to our rafting adventure. We saw many buzzards circling and joked about lying still enough to have one drop down on us. We could grab it, clean it and have a "chicken" lunch on the bank and set sail again. Man, we laughed aft the thought. Buzzard for lunch! As the day wore on, we had gone maybe ten or twelve miles (this had taken a few hours as the ditch was moving pretty slow) when we realized with all of our planning, we had forgotten water! Once we realized this our thirst tripled. You have to know we didn't go near those peanut butter sandwiches. All of the water around us didn't help matters either. The irrigation ditch, like many held water you wouldn't want to swim in let alone drink but it was runing water just the same and drove us crazy with thirst and it was near a 100 degrees by then. It took us another three or four hours, I believe, to reach our "pick-up point" at our school, Griffin Creek Elementary. In my whole life I don't ever remember being that thirsty.
So here I am. Having a cup of coffee, roughly forty-five years latter and this memory pops up. Sometimes these little movies of the mind are quite a treat. Thanks for sharing a simple story.
I was just thinking about my step-brother, Gary and some of our adventures.
After reading "Huck Finn" in school (I believe the 5th or 6th grade) we agreed that it would be really "cool" to build a raft and ride off into the great unknown. This didn't just turn out to be two boys banging a couple of bent nails into some wood and givin' her a try. No, we spent as I remember, weeks designing this vessel. It started out with us wanting to cut down trees in the back woods and roping them together and went all the way to having a small cabin with a (what we thought at the time) sofisticated toilet/plumbing system. You know how kids dream.
Well, we settled on a series of innertubes, tied together with boards on top for a floor. We built a wooden rudder and cut two long poles like "Huck" had to guide us through the shallows. Mom offered to throw some food together for us but we weren't having it.....it was our adventure, after all. We knew there was only one meal that would suit. Peanut butter on wonder bread! A man's meal! I wonder what went through her mind watching us busy ourselves for the launching.
The morning had finally arrived to set sail. Let me describe our little world at that time. We grew up in Oregon. Born and raised. The last five years or spent in a town called Medford. Very near the northern California border and right smack dab on the interstate 5 corridor. Medford, in the summer, was hell on earth. It was hot! Sometimes hitting 110 to 112 degrees. The town sits in the Rogue Valley in the middle of the Cascade Mountains. Because of the semi-arrid climate the valley was loaded with fruit orchards and to accomidate these orchards, there was a large irrigation ditch that circled the valley. It was cut into the side of the foot hills with a service road beside. This road turned out to be a favorite bicycle path for the local kids.
Anyway.....the day had come to set float. We checked our provisions, hiked up to the ditch where we had built the raft and proudly pushed her into the water. IT WORKED!!! That was the look on Mom's face. Of course we never had a doubt. Off we went, full of expectations. It was just like we'd read. We even pulled a couple of long pieces of dried grass to chew on. I remember laying on my back with my feet hanging in the water and making facesout of the few clouds that braved the heat. My step-brother and I cemented a long, strong friendship that day. We told lies (stories),laughed at each other's stupid jokes and wondered about a million things. One thing we did have was presence of mind.....to appreciate the day and what we had and what we had done.
It's funny, to think back now and try to put such a simple experience, one of many in a young boys life, into perspective. To try to tell it in such a way that you see what I saw. Some of you do it very well.
Getting back to our rafting adventure. We saw many buzzards circling and joked about lying still enough to have one drop down on us. We could grab it, clean it and have a "chicken" lunch on the bank and set sail again. Man, we laughed aft the thought. Buzzard for lunch! As the day wore on, we had gone maybe ten or twelve miles (this had taken a few hours as the ditch was moving pretty slow) when we realized with all of our planning, we had forgotten water! Once we realized this our thirst tripled. You have to know we didn't go near those peanut butter sandwiches. All of the water around us didn't help matters either. The irrigation ditch, like many held water you wouldn't want to swim in let alone drink but it was runing water just the same and drove us crazy with thirst and it was near a 100 degrees by then. It took us another three or four hours, I believe, to reach our "pick-up point" at our school, Griffin Creek Elementary. In my whole life I don't ever remember being that thirsty.
So here I am. Having a cup of coffee, roughly forty-five years latter and this memory pops up. Sometimes these little movies of the mind are quite a treat. Thanks for sharing a simple story.
