My Take on Using Your Imagination

Sorry, R.K, but I'm plagiarizing off of ya!

While we were at the creek during Christmas LEJ and I went on a nature walk while Nanny & Papa were taking a well-deserved nap.

I showed her the place where my sisters and I had our fort, which today is very unimpressive to a 7 year old living in the technology age. Our fort consisted of a group of old cedars that formed an oval. Inside that cedar oval we each had our own "bedroom" and also a "kitchen" and a "living room". We used to play "house" up there for hours. There's not much left of our fort and even I have a hard time envisioning it as it was when we played there. I tried to explain to LEJ that we used our imagination and it was lots of fun, but she just didn't get it.

I showed her the spot where we used to have a real playhouse made of wood that had windows and a door and I told her how we used to bring our baby dolls to it and played house there too. She asked where it was now and I told her that Daddy had to finally dismantle it because it was falling down and was dangerous. (I think that's when we moved on to our cedar fort, but I may have it backwards.) There used to be this old pecan tree next to our playhouse that had one limb that was long and low to the ground and it had this perfect indention in it to straddle like a horse. I explained to her that we used to imagine that we were on a wild horse or a bucking bull and bounce up and down on that old pecan limb for hours. That old tree is not there anymore, but there is another one we found that had a similar limb so I told her to climb on. She couldn't reach the ground to bounce herself, so I did it for her. Again, she was amazed that this was something that we did for hours at a time and was ready to get off within minutes.

I next took her down by the creek right at the base of the cliff that Mom & Dad's house faces where there is just a huge pile of huge rocks that fell from the cliff many, many years ago. I remember spending hours there climbing on those rocks. One time when my best friend Dana and I were climbing on them we discovered some man's initials and the date carved into the rock. I don't remember what that date was, or the initials, but it was a long time ago. Dana and I spent several weeks carving our initials alongside theirs. It's been at least 10 years since I've climbed up there to see them, but now that LEJ is getting older and more agile I'm planning on showing them to her.

Peeling rock is one of those rocks I used to spend a lot of time at. It's this huge bolder and on one side of it you can just peel off these big sheets of rock. Imbedded in these sheets you can find fossils. I've been peeling layers off that rock for 41 years, and when LEJ is 41 and still peeling layers off of it there will still be many more layers for her children and grandchildren to peel! We also took our annual picture at split rock, which is right next to peeling rock. I remember two stories for how split rock got that way -- it either split when it fell from the cliff or it was hit by lightening.

We next ventured to the creek where I showed her how to make a clay pot by crushing up the bits of clay laying in the creekbed, adding a little water, and then shaping them into pots, which you then had to let dry. There's no telling how many clay ashtrays my Mom & Dad got made for them during my childhood.

When we were walking back home I asked her if she had fun and if she had any questions. She answered yes to both. Her question for me was, "When you were playing out here at all of these spots that you've shown me, did you have a parent or grown up with you?" She was amazed when I told her no. I told her we would pretty much get up in the morning, maybe watch a cartoon or two if it was on the weekend because that's the only days they were on (more amazement), and then head outside by ourselves. I could see the wheels turning in her head and I know it won't be long before she starts heading out on her own when we're down there, which is what I want for her!

It was a great way to grow up and I want her to have that same opportunity someday soon. And I hope there will come a day when she takes her son or daughter on the same nature walk that we took and teaches them how to use their imagination!