Capture the goose, part I
At the beginning of school, we had about a week or so of half days. The rest of the time we spent in camp mode. So one day I took the kids to the park. It was a beautiful late summer afternoon and we arrived at the park with enthusiasm and anticipation running high. The last few days had provided their own surprises. What would happen today?
Our first surprise came as we arrived at the park. We were going to play Capture the flag (not one of my favorite games, but the kids like it). But our field was filled with geese. Big geese. And lots of them. So I announced with full camp excitemnt, forget capture the flag, we're playing capture the goose! Cheers abounded and without delay 20 teenage boys embarked on their hunting mission. The sounds of the childrens screams for joy were the loudest noises heard in the park that day aside from the honking of petrified Canadian Geese. But after about 15-20 minutes of chasing the geese with abandon, the boys realized that when the goose takes flight it is faster than even the most enthusiatic blood hungry teenager.
So they came to me screaming "its not fair, you tricked us, this is impossible, what a stupid idea" they exclaimed with finality. I calmed down the crowd. Then I challenged them. "If you listen to me I'll teach how to catch a goose." They gathered around eager to hear the words of wisdom from the mouth of the elder. (In my life Ive never hunted anything except maybe for stepping on a few ants here and there. But by now they think I hold the key to success.)
They followed my directions. We formed a HUGE circle around the geese. The circle was so big that most people walking by proably wouldnt have noticed us as a group. One boy, who the geese had apparently developed an affection towards, advanced with a bag of potato chips, offering the gift as a token of endearment. Then every 30 seconds or so we took one or two steps in. After about 10 minutes of slow steeping and trying to keep the circle from gaping, we now found ourselves 2 feet from the geese. By now our fine feathered freinds had stopped chomping on the pringles and realized that something was up. They tried to run for the holes in our circle, so I had the boys all hold hands. But the truth is, that as scared as the geese were, the boys were much more.
Our first surprise came as we arrived at the park. We were going to play Capture the flag (not one of my favorite games, but the kids like it). But our field was filled with geese. Big geese. And lots of them. So I announced with full camp excitemnt, forget capture the flag, we're playing capture the goose! Cheers abounded and without delay 20 teenage boys embarked on their hunting mission. The sounds of the childrens screams for joy were the loudest noises heard in the park that day aside from the honking of petrified Canadian Geese. But after about 15-20 minutes of chasing the geese with abandon, the boys realized that when the goose takes flight it is faster than even the most enthusiatic blood hungry teenager.
So they came to me screaming "its not fair, you tricked us, this is impossible, what a stupid idea" they exclaimed with finality. I calmed down the crowd. Then I challenged them. "If you listen to me I'll teach how to catch a goose." They gathered around eager to hear the words of wisdom from the mouth of the elder. (In my life Ive never hunted anything except maybe for stepping on a few ants here and there. But by now they think I hold the key to success.)
They followed my directions. We formed a HUGE circle around the geese. The circle was so big that most people walking by proably wouldnt have noticed us as a group. One boy, who the geese had apparently developed an affection towards, advanced with a bag of potato chips, offering the gift as a token of endearment. Then every 30 seconds or so we took one or two steps in. After about 10 minutes of slow steeping and trying to keep the circle from gaping, we now found ourselves 2 feet from the geese. By now our fine feathered freinds had stopped chomping on the pringles and realized that something was up. They tried to run for the holes in our circle, so I had the boys all hold hands. But the truth is, that as scared as the geese were, the boys were much more.
posted by Tani at
4:38 PM
2 Comments:
Okay, I get the first comment. (I actually commented on my first post to see what it would look like! How pathetic is that?) Why don't you like capture the flag?
By
Ayelet, at 8:33 PM
No particualr reason why i dont like the game. I think I ddint appreciate the lack of planning by my freinds/teammates when we were younger for a game that works well when you plan and coordinate.
By
Tani, at 6:47 AM
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