Blog Posts
Lunch by the River
One summer morning, my friend Dee and I went out to the Nooksack River where our friend Donna was living. We planned to spend the day with her and her two granddaughters who were four and six…can’t remember their names now, it was so long ago.
We walked half a mile down river to a beautiful little sandy beach, spread blankets, set up chairs. We had brought juice and water, but no food. The kids went to play, digging, floating sticks, wading, making big splashes throwing rocks. The water was shallow, warm and slow-moving. The little one even took a nap in the shade. They were so busy being kids.
People float the water here for a distance of several miles. There are a couple of rapids upriver and sometimes “tubers” capsize, and lose gear, hats, etc. We’d wave at people floating by on their rafts, air mattresses, inner tubes and ice chest in tow. What a day we were having. It was still early in the day, but the girls were starting to be hungry. They ask for lunch, wanted to go back to the house. Donna pointed out that it was a long walk and if we went now, we wouldn’t be coming back after lunch. What did they want to do? They decided to stay longer and went back to playing in the water after they had juice.
A short time later just a few minutes actually we heard them calling and pointing upriver. I looked up and saw…down the river came shiny…what?…floating in the lazy current. The girls were so excited as they waded in, gathering up the shiny objects floating by and brought them to show us. My mouth dropped open! They had several cans of pop (different flavors, by the way) and many mylar wrapped granola bars. Lunch. The river brought them lunch.
We stayed longer at the little beach on the Nooksack.
The End!
I learned some lessons that day. I think about that day from time to time, now that I’m old. I feel like I’m just beginning to know what being creative means every day, every moment. Thank you, Mary Ellen
