Cattails

When I was a little girl my grandma would say "Stop the truck!" to my grandpa and he would pull over in his big truck (first a big red four door ford then a big brown ford) that was pulling a 5th wheel trailer behind it so we could get out and cut down cat tails on the way to the camp ground.

We did this often. I'm not sure how many times we stopped that truck and Grandma would drop her trusty little step stool out the door and climb out, and we were right behind her. (That thing was so high that to get in and out she really did have a step stool in the truck).

Then when we got to the campground she would say "Get your paints out" and we would say "You mean Crayons!" and giggling would run for the crayon tin. Crayons smell better in a metal tin. (Not sure if you know that.)

Then we would color the cat tails in all sorts of designs and colors. We would get to keep them until they puffed up and started to explode if we managed to not "forget" them at the campground. Man, Grandma was sure forgetful. ;)

Anyway. I was so excited to see all the cat tails all over around here! So finally over the weekend I pulled over on a whim and grabbed my pocket knife and crossed the street to cut some down. I lost a shoe, but that was minor and I did manage to find it again. ;)

The kids didn't seem to get as much enjoyment out of the actual coloring of them as I did, it lasted about 3 minutes, but the sword fights they have been having in the basement are sure to leave them with lasting memories of their own.