Five cousins in the woods

What began as a simple walk in the woods turned into much more. Two days earlier my two brothers and myself had made the five hour trek from Lancaster to Potter county to meet our cousins at our annual “Uncle Dave's cabin” reunion. There were other relatives there too, most of them older. They provided a comfortable backdrop for us and since they were quite a bit older we always felt young and adventurious around them, or a least mischevious! They also provided much better meals than we could have for ourselves! However, even though it was nice they were there, what made the cabin really special was seeing our cousins Bryan and Ben who happened to live about two hours away . . . just far enough that we saw each other a couple times a year but not nearly as much as we would have liked.

Anyway, the five of us had spent the weekend hunting squirrels, playing pit, dangling things through upstairs vents on our elder's heads, making up stories, and pretty much whatever else we could think of. Now we needed something to do before it was time to head home. We decided to go hiking. It was Sunday so we couldn't take our guns, but it was a beautiful day and we wanted to get some fresh air. It was also a good way to extend the visit!

We started off through the woods for a quiet walk. I'm not quite sure how it started, I think it started with us trying to teach Ben and Bryan how to top trees (climbing up a sapling until it bends under your weight and lets you down to the ground. If you pick the right size, you can have a great ride. If you don't it either bends before you get your feet off the ground or you find out at the top that it has no intention of bending and you have to slide back down, usually at some damage to you knees or other body parts). Anyway, I think it started out as that, but in the absence of ideal saplings it turned into pushing down a small dead tree. Pretty soon we saw another dead tree (maybe stick is a better description) and we pushed that down too. Before long we were getting creative and finding new ways to push down the trees. I distinctly remember Bryan who was probable twelve or thirteen – two years older than me – attempting a karate move on the tree.

At the time Bryan had some fascination with karate. Unfortunately, in the absence of any training, he was no better at it than any of the rest of us. His karate kick, which was aimed at the small tree, was very successful, in fact it was a little too successful and the tree toppled almost before he hit it and totally threw off his calculation. His momentum carried him too far and he turned a neat little trick in the air before landing on his back. He got up a little winded but still laughing. We all agreed his karate needed a little help, but his sound effects for the move were a big hit. It sounded something like an extended “Hiiii--- Yah” and went in time to appropriate chopping motions. The rest of us thought it was funny and began doing the same thing.

So now there were five of us romping through the woods pushing down trees and random and making Tarzan-like noises and moves. Gradually, as we got more and more enthusiastic and farther from the cabin – and our egos got bigger=) -- we began picking bigger and bigger trees. As the size of the trees increased, so did the danger. Some of the trees were pretty tall and the only way to get them over was to get it swinging back and forth until the momentum of the rhythm toppled it. To get enough leverage we would put as many of us on one side as we could and begin pushing together. The only problem with this was that some trees – especially the tall skinny ones – have a weak top and strong base so by the time we got the tree swinging the top was creaking and cracking. Usually some bark and small branches would start breaking off halfway through and we would have to run for cover as they rained down around us. One time the whole top half broke and almost clocked Greg on the head. However, that didn't deter us. We were young (no comments about IQ right now), we were conquering the woods, and we were confident that nothing could stand in our way.

Occasionally we did come up against a tree that was too big for us, but we tended to figure this out pretty quickly. If we came to a tree we couldn't beat, we quickly ignored it and acted like we didn't care. However, despite a few defeats, for the most part our mission was a smashing success. We declared that we were actually making the woods safer for innocent people who would come walking up here after us (I don't know who we really though would come wandering up the mountain in the middle of nowhere and get hit by a tree) but I think mostly we just liked to see the trees fall and hear the crash.

We roamed pretty far that day, but eventually we decided we'd better head back before out parents sent out a search party for us. However, we decided we would do it again the next time we went up.

That was years ago, but we still go out tree romping when we go to Dave's cabin. There aren't as many old dead trees as there used to be, but I'm sure that time will take care of that. However, we manage to find a couple and we still have fun pushing them over. To be sure we're much more mature about it now and don't make all the noises and antics we used to (okay, some of us still do sometimes but it's much more manly now – yeah right!), but mostly it's still boys pushing down trees. However, we have added some new twists over the years. For instance, there is an abundant crop of acorns on that mountain which we discovered make ideal ammunition for a fight.

I imagine there will come a day when we won't all be able or fit to go to Dave's cabin, I don't imagine when we're sixty that we'll still be going around pushing down trees, but I hope that day doesn't come for a long time. If there's one thing I've learned from all the stupid childhood games I've played (and some of them are pretty hair-brained) its that you don't need fancy equipment or technical rules to have fun. All you need is a little bit of imagination and a couple of friends who are willing to have fun and even something as ordinary as a walk in the woods can turn into something exciting and dangerous. BTW, it helps if you don't mind acting like a kid again. With my shoulder temporarily out of action I've gained a new appreciation for “kid's games.” They can be a lot of fun and they're not always as safe or as tame as they look! Okay, most of them aren't that dangerous, and I will be glad when I can play sports competitively again, but there's lot's of other ways to have fun if you're willing to try it and don't mind looking stupid. After all, why should kids have all the fun?