FROM THE DAIRY CRATE

I just came across a treasure trove of early writings by me, my brothers and sister, and our village bush school in a dusty old dairy crate. (The crates are frequently beachcombed around here and are handy for storage, and the perfect dimensions for files.) I thought I’d put a new category on my blog: “From the Dairy Crate,” and every now and then I’ll put up a short blog post featuring one of the finds in it.

This time it’s a true adventure I wrote up when I was probably twelve, accompanied by illustrations in pen. Here’s what I wrote, misspellings, bad grammar, missing punctuation, and excessive exclamation marks included:

I remember that day very good. All five of us kids went up in the woods in late fall to play with our wooden swords. We set out to climb the biggest hill (mountain to us) in the woods. And there it was.

We climbed and we climbed turning to fight our companions once in a while when we needed to catch our breath.

Up that mountain of moss we climbed and believe you me that little hill surely put up a good fight. By this time we reached what we thought was the top we were tired. But wait! There in front of us was this other little part of the mountain! We hadn’t reach the top yet! It was a green mossy mound with three trees growing out of it. We moved tiredly forward until we saw them.

Until we saw the green eyes of something big and dark hiding under that mound of dirt and moss.

We ran back down the mountain and to the house so fast you’d think our britches had caught fire.

We told our parents who then had one heck of a time getting any of us out there to show them what we were talking about. But Jamie finally went. With a gun. But when they got back we found out that what we saw were just some bright green rocks!

Daneel

3/25/2017 01:00:08 pm

Ooooh, I know! I know! It was kryptonite! Your folks put the rocks in a lead box and saved Superman!

Wow, what a great yarn, Tara. All I’ve got in my dairy box is some old cheese (though it IS green by now). I hope you’ll keep sharing those old treasures as promised; your 12-year-old version is very talented!

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Kathy

3/25/2017 02:36:42 pm

Love this! I’m wondering where this dairy crate has been all this time?

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Tara (ADOW)

3/25/2017 02:56:58 pm

For some reason I couldn’t use the reply button, Daneel. I love your explanation–it was, HAD to be, kryptonite! It’s the only explanation.

There will definitely be more “From the Dairy Crate” posts. Including excerpts from the handmade “newspaper” our tiny bush school put out. I haven’t looked at everything in the crate, so who knows what else I’ll find? It’ll be fun sharing whatever’s in there.

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Tara (ADOW)

3/25/2017 02:58:32 pm

Thanks, Kathy! It’s fun trying to imagine where these crates have traveled. I think they get washed off barges carrying containers, but who knows?

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Wendy

3/27/2017 06:06:50 am

Well, Gee! Don’t stop there. We want more!

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Tara (ADOW)

3/27/2017 10:17:47 am

The reply button still isn’t working. 🙁

Thanks for the encouragement, Wendy! There are some real treasures in that dairy crate, I’m having fun going through everything. My plan is to share them in between regular blog posts.

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ALLAN COBB

4/6/2017 08:24:03 am

Tare, your gang’s neighborhood adventures are even more exciting than a Snipe Hunt, or reading the book Pilgrim’s Progress.

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Tara (ADOW)

4/9/2017 07:55:43 pm

Hey, Allan, good to hear from you. Did you get my letter? I have a surprise for you coming up on my blog one of these days! I’ve gotten behind a little bit, but better late than never. 🙂 Tara