Hobo Dinners. Fun fun!

When I was a kid, I loved going to my grandparents' farm. Especially if it was a bonfire weekend. Anytime there was any clearing of property, all the debris was piled up and set on fire. That meant we kids got to roast hotdogs and marshmallows outside. We would search the woods for the perfect marshmallow roasting stick. One that was forked on the end--and not just one fork--maybe 10 or so so that we could roast a whole bag of marshmallows at once. And one that was at least 5 feet long so that we wouldn't have to stand with our backs to the fire, arms extended behind us holding out the stick so the heat wouldn't scorch our eyebrows off. :P

There's definitely not room for a bonfire in our little backyard, but we did recently acquire a fire pit. And not long ago we cooked "hobo dinners," a meal my grandmother would prepare for us on bonfire days. It's basically a layer of sliced potatoes, carrots, onions, a ground beef patty, another layer of onions, carrots and potatoes, all salted and peppered and wrapped in foil. Then you stick the foil package directly in the bed of the fire and let it cook for 30 minutes or so.

Then when you open it up, you have a simple, hearty, super fun meal waiting for you! Everything about hobo dinners is fun. I sliced up the potatoes, carrots and onions then let everyone assemble their own packet, which was fun. Of course, anytime we get some good family time outside with no electronics on, we have lots of fun. But the very best part is probably the dessert. :) The Child Things used a single spear from our hibiscus bush instead of a multi-tined, extended handle marshmallow roasting stick, but from the looks of it, the results were just as good!

Remembering the Haunted Indian Village

It's only August, but we are already starting the debates on what we want to be for Halloween this year. You have to start early if you want to get your favorite costume, as we learned last year. We haven't come to any firm decisions yet, but it got me thinking about my Halloweens as a kid.

One year my cousins and I decided we would put together a Halloween party. Though I grew up in Houston, we spent a lot of weekends in the country. My grandparents have a little farm in East Texas, and me, my sisters and our cousins spent hours playing in the gully and woods in the horse pasture. The animals had created paths through the woods, and we created and named our own landmarks, like the Indian Village, where we constructed a circle of lean-tos (thanks to the newly-gleaned knowledge of my boyscout cousin) around a "campfire." The girls named things like "The Friendship Tree," and "The Peaceful Meadow," while the boys came up with "Blood Hill" and etc. Ha!

Anyway, we knew this wood so well, we decided we wanted to spook our parents by taking them on a tour of "The Haunted Wood" on Halloween night. One person would act as a tour guide, leading all the grown-ups along the paths, where ghosts of the Indians who once inhabited the wood would jump out at them and dead bodies would dangle out of trees above the trails. We had maps, schedules, even recorded sound effects, and were ready to scare the socks off our guests. The grand finale was to be at the Indian Village, where we would communicate with the Great Indian Spirits, and they wouldn't be too happy that we were there.

We rehearsed our plot, and it went off without a hitch. But, uh...doing it in the dark was another thing. Especially when one cousin (who shall remain unnamed because it was me) suggested that the cousins who were going to be the spooks should not carry flashlights because then the grownups would where they were going and wouldn't be surprised when someone jumped out at them. The Unnamed Cousin acted as tour guide, so luckily for her, she did get a flashlight.

There she was, leading a line of soon-to-be-terrified grown-ups into the woods. She stopped at the first designated scary spot and instructed her guests to listen to the ghosts of Indians. The ghosts were supposed to issue a foreboding warning about what was to come, but instead heard something like "mwaaa mwaaaaa mwa mwaaaaaaaaaaa mwa." Amazingly, the cousin who had been assigned the leave the tape recorder at that spot had made it in the dark without a flashlight, but not before tripping several times over tree roots and etc. and dropping the tape recorder hard. It never worked again.

Along the path the group traipsed, with several spooks jumping out at the right time, even eliciting one startled scream out of an Aunt. Then the guide began to lead them uphill towards the Indian Village, where they would all soon be screaming in terror (insert evil laugh here). However, the tour guide, even with her flashlight, soon lost her way in the dark woods. After several minutes of searching for the haunted Indian Village, the tour guide stopped and called into the darkness, "Oh, Great Indian Spirits, call to us so that we can find your village."

The Great Indian Spirits heard her and answered back, "We can't find it, either!"

Eventually, the tour guide and her group of grown-ups did make it to the Indian Village, but by that time they were laughing more than screaming. Ahhh well, it was a good try. So, the tour guide and the spooks all made it back alive to the farmhouse, where the younger cousins (who said no-way no-how were they going into the woods on Halloween after dark), had set out a lovely spread of Halloween refreshments.

That was a fun day...such happy memories of times spent with my family. Somehow, I don't think the memory would have been quite as pleasant if the trek through the Haunted Wood had gone as planned.

The Power of a Crayon

Have you ever had a moment, when you see something from your childhood, and the memories of it are so vivid that you suddenly feel 8 years old again? That happened to me the other day with a crayon. Strange? Maybe.
While I'm in Texas, I'm staying in my aunt and uncle's house. They have tons of school supplies leftover from my cousins' school days and my aunt's days as a teacher, and, since their children are all contributing members of society now, they offered them to us when we moved in. That was a jackpot for a homeschooler! Paints, poster boards, flashcards, colored pencils, construction paper, scissors, rulers, and of course crayons.
The crayons are contained in a shoebox-sized sterilite container. When we first opened it up, I could tell they were used by my cousins when they were kids because the colors had names that could only have come out of the '80s. Vivid Tangerine. Hot Magenta. Ultra Blue.
And then the child thing dug her hand down to the bottom, pulled something out and said, "Look, Mommy, an eraser."
I looked. I gasped. I transformed into an 8-year-old again.

Then I regained my lucidity and explained that this was no eraser. It was a crayon, an AWESOME crayon.
Do y'all remember those multi-colored crayons? I had forgotten all about them, but when I saw this one, I remembered that they were the coolest thing in school when I was little. I guess it can't compare much to the ipods that kids take to elementary with them these days, but back then...this was the thing to have!