Used to Actually Go Outside

Spoke with my sister back in Brooklyn.  My nephew just turned eleven.  She put him on the phone and we chatted for a bit.  “Whatdya do on your big day?”   “Had a scavenger hunt.”  Cool.  I used to arrange scavenger hunts when my girls were that age.  When my sister was back on the phone I asked what it’s like to go hide things for kids to find in Brooklyn.”  “No.” she clarified.  “You download the app.” 

The pace of disruptive innovation is obviously accelerating.   My last old fashioned scavenger hunt was only three or four years ago. I’d go out into the park near our house and snap a photo of all the hiding places and draw up a little map.  Then on the day of the hunt, I’d go plop goodie bags down in one place or another and hope that no stranger would take them before the birthday scavengers began their adventure.  I probably thought I was pretty slick incorporating photography into the maps.

My nephew and his chums got messaging updates and ran off to participating establishments where he and his crew battled folks like Darth Vader in augmented reality.  My style of scavenging would have felt like candle-making I suppose.  No need to mention that this sort of thing will seem hokey and quaint, a real old-fashioned birthday, when he describes it to his kids in 2048.  “Yeah, we used to actually go outside.”

At dinner, my wife had some pork that was good, if you ate around the stewed fatty bits.  The pita bread was smothered in olive oil and garlic but it was well cooked and I had too many of those irresistible starchy corners.  I asked the girls about scavenger hunts and they said: “Yeah, those were great.”  Which was good to hear.  They were a lot of work, as I recall. Worth it, perhaps, if they are actually lodged as memory.

Monday, 11/12/18