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Cucumber Boats My grandparents didn't have any games for us kids that took batteries or plugged in the wall. Everything was toys of the 30's and 40's like Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys. There were board games too like scrabble (my grandmother's favorite), Sorry!, and a few decks of cards. So there was a limited number of things to do inside the house, but there was 2000 acres of trouble and exploring to do outside! Around the yard of the house flowed a creek; in my entire lifetime I have never seen it dry. My siblings and I would play with that creek all the time. We would make dams and go fishing (even though there were no fish in this little creek). The creek flowed behind the old house, my mom says that is is what her family used for water when she was a girl. One of the fondest memories about the creek was when us kids would make boats to float in the creek. We would scavenge around grandpa's shop looking for some scrap wood. We would run over to the creek and see how our boats would float, they would usually bob in the water with the top barely over the surface. Then we would go in the shop and use all the old tools to make our boats float better and faster. We had no idea what we were doing with all these tools. We would take a wood chisel and try to hollow out the center of the wood so it would float better. Then we would use the wire wheel on the grinder to smooth out the edges of the boat. Grandpa would usually walk in by about that time and holler at us that we are going to get hurt, then he would says, "Here let me make you a boat." Then he would turn around and slowly walk out of the shop expecting us to follow him. He would walk down the driveway to the path that goes through the yard over to the garden. "The Garden?" I wondered, "What is in the garden that has anything to do with making a boat?" He went down one of the rows in the garden and looked around then bent over and plucked 3 cucumbers. Then he walked over to the house and came back out with a spoon. He sat on the steps of the house and sat down and pulled out his pocket knife. Then he cut out oval opening into the cucumber the long way. Then took the spoon and scooped out the seeds and extra cucumber goo and handed me the best floating fastest boat I have ever floated on the creek. |