Keep your heart open, someone's gonna find you

[austin_dern]

[ Sorry I'm late; we're at Furry Connection North, more about which later. ]

bunny_hugger and I haven't gone letterboxing in months, even though she's a real fan and I'm interested. So we used the chance of her needing to go back up to campus for something to look about for a box in that area. There were two recorded as being in the vicinity, one of them planted in November and not yet found; being the First Finder is an extra thrill on top of just finding a box at all. So, we went.

It's in a county park, and there was a person sitting in the cabin at the entry, but we couldn't do anything to get his attention and we weren't sure whether the admission fee was charged what with it being still the last dregs of winter. After a seemly time being ignored, we went in anyway. The clues for this letterbox were fairly straightforward --- no riddles or deliberate ambiguities or anything, just directions of what to look for --- although it nearly went wrong immediately because a bridge we were supposed to use was closed for the season. I'd assume the season was winter except then how was the box planted in November without the bridge's seasonality being an issue? But we found an alternate bridge and reconstructed what the path most likely was from that point, and ... success! We found it!

Three days after the first group to find it. That's a touch disappointing, and they didn't have a stamp so just wrote a note to the letterbox's log, but I trust you all appreciate the way a box was able to slumber through the whole of winter and get its first and second parties of visitors within days of each other.

After, we went to a coffee shop near campus, and near her honors class, where we enjoyed some quirky near-campus-coffee-shop tea lattes containing, in my case, two parts peppermint tea to nine parts whipped sugar, a fine way to warm up before we went back home to join a Doctor Who party already in progress.

Trivia: The United States toy industry grew about 1,300 percent between 1905 and 1925, in the last year producing more than $58 million worth of toys. Source: The Kid of Coney Island: Fred Thompson and the Rise of American Amusements, Woody Register.

Currently Reading: Opus 100, Isaac Asimov.

Comments

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Regarding Asimov: citizens of Philadelphia want a plaque to mark the neighborhood where he lived during World War II.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I had no idea. That's neat, though I kind of suspect Asimov would have been bewildered by the project.

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

I'm not quite familiar with the usage of "letterboxing", regrettably; it sounds more related to geocaching than an urge to correctly matte film or TV for intended aspect ratio display, although I'm willing to support such enthusiasm as well.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

It's much older (and to me, cooler) than geocaching. As practiced currently in America, it also has a significant artistic element, since each box has its own stamp (as does each letterboxer) and they are generally hand carved and often very elaborate.

http://www.letterboxing.org/faq/faq.html

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

And it's quite some fun to do, as well.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I'm a touch surprised you haven't encountered letterboxing (in this context) before. It does seem like it'd be either right up or at least rather close to your alley.