I think all women have this superpower of finding stuff where they said it is, especially when it's your wife/mother. At least that's how it looks like from the perspective of men in our house.
I didn't hunt for mushrooms in a long time, but I'm not a big fan of trips into the woods, as most of them resulted in getting dirty and having to pick lots of plants from my trousers. On the other hand I can agree that for most children fast food after (in)voluntary trip is a perfect "compensation for moral damages", as my dad describes it.
Speaking of briars or thorns, in my family you have to deal with ripping them off by yourself. And it's better to do it quickly and precisely, because mum doesn't like to have laundry ruined by having to wait long for one's unprepared clothes or by having plant debris spilled all over the washing machine.
"Anything worth doing is worth doing until your dad bans it for life" - in case of saying things, in my family it was banning using the phrase "no sense!" due to us overusing it. After that restriction had been issued, each use was penalized with grounding. Banning loopholes i. e. "nonsense" or "sensless" followed soon.
I did a quick search and it came up as Counting Crows. I know nothing about music. I can go back and change it. Edit: apparently the Counting Crows version is a cover. It's the only one I've ever heard. I'll leave it the same for now to leave a permanent record of my lack of music knowledge.
LOL I remember as a child telling my mom that I liked that Rolling Stones song "Ain't Too Proud To Beg", and she reminded me that the Temptations did it first.
My father always claimed that the uterus is a homing device!!! It's not activated until females mature, so little girls are as bad at finding things as grown men. And it's true!!!!
My siblings and I were introduced to camping at an early age. "Camping" meant filling up a backpack with a tent, sleeping bag, a change of dry clothes, and as much food as you could carry, and then hiking into the woods as farther away from the car than you would think possible in a day. I think my parents did this out of self preservation. If they could get their horde of kids out of the house for even a weekend, preferably a week, it would give them at least a chance to sip a beer and catch up on the laundry. Once we were capable of lighting a fire, and what kid isn't, we were left to forage for ourselves in the woods with assurance that someone would return to pick us up at the trailhead in a couple of days. And if nobody did, well, at least we had a tent, sleeping back, and a destination. These days I hunt mushrooms with my siblings for enjoyment, usually sharing them with the salmon we caught together.
How old were you when you and your siblings went camping on your own? That sounds amazing... for your parents. As for adding fresh caught salmon to freshly found mushrooms, you're basically Bear Grylls.
The 'pack' leader would be a teenager. The youngest would be ten. All of us were in Boy Scouts. Our sister tried Girl Scouts but they seemed to more into being girls than scouts. This was all the seventies and free-range children were the norm. At least it seemed normal to us.
One of my favourite things about being a dad is reliving childhood memories with them - even if they don’t necessarily go the way you remembered!
And you might as well have been describing me in your first paragraph. I’m genuinely awful at finding anything. My dream house would have AirTags on everything.
I have a superpower of sending my husband to go get things that are not where I thought they were. He gets so frustrated with me because I’ll give detailed directions and he follows them to the letter and comes up empty handed. I go look for myself, then spend at least a half an hour trying to figure out where I put them. It awful when you forget where you put something to keep it safe. Maybe that’s why I hate putting things away.
Mushrooming with the kids must be as popular as it is with college students, but for altogether different reasons! 😂 My 7yo kid saw a few wild mushrooms outside her pediatrician's office and immediately grabbed my phone and downloaded a mushroom identifier app. Now we stop randomly on the sides of roads to "hunt" 'shrooms. Guess I got a future forrest forager on my hands. :-)
I didn't know that app existed, but I should have assumed. It would have come in handy if we encounter any other mushrooms, but the forest was mostly devoid of fungi.
My search engine betrayed me. I'll go back and fix it. Edit: Okay, Google wasn't wrong. The version I've always heard was covered by Counting Crows. I've legitimately never heard the Joni Mitchell original until I looked it up right now.
Same at my house and it drives me insane. When you KNOW something is RIGHT THERE and they don’t see it? Augggg. As for morales I’m in Missouri and it’s suppose to be a “to do” every wet spring. I did it once. Nope. Nada. Zip. I personally don’t think they really exist.
Ah, such a wonderful fact of childhood that you indeed never have to taste or be in the same room as a food item to declare you hate it and will never eat it! Pretty sure I disliked certain foods simply because my dad liked them. (Do I need therapy for that one?)
Southern Missouri. Apparently the ground has to be consistently above 40 for them to grow. I had no idea it was such a huge thing. I remember hunting for them with Dad in Southern Illinois. Google morel mushroom map 2023. Amazed me lol
I really enjoyed this telling of your latest adventure. I never ever went mushroom hunting because I hate those things. The smell of a fried mushroom just gags me - they smell and taste like rubbery cooked dirt to me. However, my first thought, since you were unfamiliar with mushrooms in the wild, was how would you distinguish a poisonous mushroom from an edible one? In case I am ever lost in the woods and have to rely on myself to find something I can eat to delay my death from starving, I'd most likely eat the wrong ones.
Morel mushrooms are very distinct. It's almost impossible to confuse them with something else. Plus we had the expert right there with us. The kids were safe, though, because they weren't going to eat any mushrooms they found, poisonous or not.
I think all women have this superpower of finding stuff where they said it is, especially when it's your wife/mother. At least that's how it looks like from the perspective of men in our house.
I didn't hunt for mushrooms in a long time, but I'm not a big fan of trips into the woods, as most of them resulted in getting dirty and having to pick lots of plants from my trousers. On the other hand I can agree that for most children fast food after (in)voluntary trip is a perfect "compensation for moral damages", as my dad describes it.
Speaking of briars or thorns, in my family you have to deal with ripping them off by yourself. And it's better to do it quickly and precisely, because mum doesn't like to have laundry ruined by having to wait long for one's unprepared clothes or by having plant debris spilled all over the washing machine.
I've accidentally sent briars through the laundry before, and you're absolutely right: It's a disaster.
"Anything worth doing is worth doing until your dad bans it for life" - in case of saying things, in my family it was banning using the phrase "no sense!" due to us overusing it. After that restriction had been issued, each use was penalized with grounding. Banning loopholes i. e. "nonsense" or "sensless" followed soon.
Ah, the endless search for loopholes, the cornerstone of childhood.
Very funny, thank you. AND...to give credit where credit is due, Joni Mitchell wrote “Big Yellow Taxi”...paved paradise & put up a parking lot!
I did a quick search and it came up as Counting Crows. I know nothing about music. I can go back and change it. Edit: apparently the Counting Crows version is a cover. It's the only one I've ever heard. I'll leave it the same for now to leave a permanent record of my lack of music knowledge.
LOL I remember as a child telling my mom that I liked that Rolling Stones song "Ain't Too Proud To Beg", and she reminded me that the Temptations did it first.
I thought the same thing but then again James is younger than me so it's his frame of reference lol
haha! Your description of fruitless searching for something that Lola requested is too familiar.
I have a friend who always tells her husband "Stand aside and let the uterus find it."
It's very upsetting that I don't have this power. Every time I look for something that's not there, I feel like I'm losing my mind.
My father always claimed that the uterus is a homing device!!! It's not activated until females mature, so little girls are as bad at finding things as grown men. And it's true!!!!
My siblings and I were introduced to camping at an early age. "Camping" meant filling up a backpack with a tent, sleeping bag, a change of dry clothes, and as much food as you could carry, and then hiking into the woods as farther away from the car than you would think possible in a day. I think my parents did this out of self preservation. If they could get their horde of kids out of the house for even a weekend, preferably a week, it would give them at least a chance to sip a beer and catch up on the laundry. Once we were capable of lighting a fire, and what kid isn't, we were left to forage for ourselves in the woods with assurance that someone would return to pick us up at the trailhead in a couple of days. And if nobody did, well, at least we had a tent, sleeping back, and a destination. These days I hunt mushrooms with my siblings for enjoyment, usually sharing them with the salmon we caught together.
How old were you when you and your siblings went camping on your own? That sounds amazing... for your parents. As for adding fresh caught salmon to freshly found mushrooms, you're basically Bear Grylls.
The 'pack' leader would be a teenager. The youngest would be ten. All of us were in Boy Scouts. Our sister tried Girl Scouts but they seemed to more into being girls than scouts. This was all the seventies and free-range children were the norm. At least it seemed normal to us.
One of my favourite things about being a dad is reliving childhood memories with them - even if they don’t necessarily go the way you remembered!
And you might as well have been describing me in your first paragraph. I’m genuinely awful at finding anything. My dream house would have AirTags on everything.
I like this idea. Time to buy some air tags.
I have a superpower of sending my husband to go get things that are not where I thought they were. He gets so frustrated with me because I’ll give detailed directions and he follows them to the letter and comes up empty handed. I go look for myself, then spend at least a half an hour trying to figure out where I put them. It awful when you forget where you put something to keep it safe. Maybe that’s why I hate putting things away.
That's why I want to become a minimalist. I'm tired of looking for things. I'd rather the things just be gone.
stickers, briars, whatever you called them, are a pain to deal with. But I'll take them any day over ticks or leeches.
Very true. If we had encountered ticks, my kids would have burned down the woods and never returned.
Mushrooming with the kids must be as popular as it is with college students, but for altogether different reasons! 😂 My 7yo kid saw a few wild mushrooms outside her pediatrician's office and immediately grabbed my phone and downloaded a mushroom identifier app. Now we stop randomly on the sides of roads to "hunt" 'shrooms. Guess I got a future forrest forager on my hands. :-)
I didn't know that app existed, but I should have assumed. It would have come in handy if we encounter any other mushrooms, but the forest was mostly devoid of fungi.
Ummm.... that's Joni Mitchell, thank you very much.
My search engine betrayed me. I'll go back and fix it. Edit: Okay, Google wasn't wrong. The version I've always heard was covered by Counting Crows. I've legitimately never heard the Joni Mitchell original until I looked it up right now.
Same at my house and it drives me insane. When you KNOW something is RIGHT THERE and they don’t see it? Augggg. As for morales I’m in Missouri and it’s suppose to be a “to do” every wet spring. I did it once. Nope. Nada. Zip. I personally don’t think they really exist.
Ah, such a wonderful fact of childhood that you indeed never have to taste or be in the same room as a food item to declare you hate it and will never eat it! Pretty sure I disliked certain foods simply because my dad liked them. (Do I need therapy for that one?)
Fun read!
I got the plot of an entire novel over the hunt for morel mushrooms, so they’re good for that, at least.
“People would have definitely gotten the wrong impression if I told them I put my kids through school by selling mushrooms.”😂🤣😂🤣
“ Afterwards, we went out to Chick-fil-A, which made the whole day worthwhile.” SO true! Chick-fil-A makes *everything* better!👍🏼
Southern Missouri. Apparently the ground has to be consistently above 40 for them to grow. I had no idea it was such a huge thing. I remember hunting for them with Dad in Southern Illinois. Google morel mushroom map 2023. Amazed me lol
Who or what is Counting crows, and what do they have to do with Joni Mitchell’s song?
Ask Google. It betrayed me.
I really enjoyed this telling of your latest adventure. I never ever went mushroom hunting because I hate those things. The smell of a fried mushroom just gags me - they smell and taste like rubbery cooked dirt to me. However, my first thought, since you were unfamiliar with mushrooms in the wild, was how would you distinguish a poisonous mushroom from an edible one? In case I am ever lost in the woods and have to rely on myself to find something I can eat to delay my death from starving, I'd most likely eat the wrong ones.
Morel mushrooms are very distinct. It's almost impossible to confuse them with something else. Plus we had the expert right there with us. The kids were safe, though, because they weren't going to eat any mushrooms they found, poisonous or not.