No Strings Attached

We waited until Friday to go to the creek, but the boat building started on Tuesday.

Lots of words floated around heads and shoulders bent over the work table, “design, drill, hammer, nail".” The ideas flowed, “design, stack, cannon, float.” The stories unfolded, “sail, fast, wind, flag.”

For the past two weeks, we’ve supplied the children with “cleaning out the basement” projects and this boat idea was one. We piled up the table with clothespins, pieces of wood, sticks, corks, bottle caps, wood glue, hammers, nails.

Hammers, nails, and wood — three must-haves for ideas to take shape.

Designs take shape!

By Thursday the fleet was built. Friday would mark the launch because on Friday the Parkway (the road we have to cross) is closed to vehicular traffic. It makes the whole trip to Sligo Creek so much easier.

On their way to the boat launch. The road is closed for vehicular traffic. Happy pedestrians with boats.

Once there, the children scattered about on the bank of the creek and talked about where they would launch and how far the boats would go.

Friends, here’s what though — these boards initially had eye hooks and strings attached. The string was in the way during the design and build phase, so I cut them off. You can see a pile of string in one of the photos. Those wood squares were intended to be lantern bases for our annual lantern launch. There was a whole collection of them in the basement stacked precariously, kind of woven together leaning and propped up on the dowels attached to the four corners. Our industrious (so grateful) parents always make extra each year. There were so many! I don’t know how many exactly, but as I was moving the stacks, one fell and cut just below my eye, so enough was enough and the repurposing project: Boat Launch took shape.

The string.

Think about it.

String is something that adults attach to boats. And why? We have to be honest with ourselves here — is it because we think the string secures us? Protects us from losing something too precious to let go of? Not just the thing, but the little hand holding it? Is the string a tether that keeps childhood intact? The happiness of never losing a thing? No tears today! There’s this string that will hold us together!

I vetoed reattaching the strings.

And listen, that was not an easy decision for me! For years and years I have dutifully tied on string to all manner of items. If it was hard for me, you need to know that for the children, the decision came out of the blue. What is this? This no string idea? As the children picked up their boats to carry them to the creek it was the first thing they asked about.

Where is the string?

Not there. That’s where.

Imagine now the experience and the possibilities of these stringless boats.

There was joy. And there was terror. There was forlorn distress. There was thrilling adventure.

One boat took off — oh you know this child was delighted beyond all imaginings that his boat went speeding down the stream, away, away . . . oops . . . away. Straight for a waterfall. It was the first to get hung up, too far for its captain to reach at the crest of this great torrent (not that great, but you know the drill!). He was horrified. The ship would be lost forever! No one has ever even ventured that far into the wild! He ran from one side of the creek, over the bridge, and down the other side. The rescue mission seemed bound to fail unless he could get help.

And he did.

One of the children found a stick with just the right kind of hook on the end. Cheers echoed along the creek banks, hurrah, hurrah. The captain clutched the boat to his chest. He loves that boat with all his heart now, even more than before when it was just something he built. Now it was something he almost lost. Their shared adventure will always be treasured, but now both captain and boat must retire to only dream of their seafaring days. They’ve seen too much, too much.

Oh no, the rest of the fleet was still in danger!

Just as that boat was rescued a flotilla became trapped in a tangle of tree branches! The snatching claws of the fallen tree held the flotilla fast in a spidery embrace way out in the middle of the stream. The current pushed the boats further into the trap! What to do! One of the captains climbed out on the tree, only so far (children have a pretty good intuition about how far). He bounced and shook those branches until each boat was freed!

The rolling emotions! The running feet! The thinking! The passion! The problem-solving!

No strings!

Viewing all this too-much adventure, one captain decided to only go on jaunty little day trips just at the edge of the creek. This captain’s boat would leave the shore, steered by a sure hand in a tiny arc, but with loads of flair and imagined story. Each time, the captain would navigate back to shore safely.

No strings!

Three boats got caught in the eddy right at Dragon Tooth Rock. Now it just so happens that generations of children from the school know about that eddy. There is a giant snapping turtle who used to live there (maybe still does?!?) and in the rare times the creek freezes that spot will still flow unless there is a hard freeze. That’s only happened once that we know of and the water is deep, deep, filled with all the mystery you would want to imagine.

One of the boats was knocked, rescued really, when the other two knocked it just a bit off-course in their endless cycles. Oh we know all this because all of us stood, breath held, and watched! Helpless because the water there is certainly the deepest in all the waterways of the world!

The second one was freed with the careful aim of thrown rocks around and just past the trapped boats. Imagine the cheers but also the collective despair of that last boat still trapped. So many arms wrapped around its captain to comfort her.

Sorry to share this, but the passengers on almost every single boat were knocked off/fell off and were lost to the deep. These passengers were barely leaning, attached, and perched on their little clothespin peg feet on decks, against flagpoles, or on top of wine cork cannons.

Once all boats were recovered and the loss of clothespin life was properly mourned, the planning for the next launch began almost immediately. Repairs must be made! New boats must be built! New passengers must book their passage.

Here is the list; glue that won’t melt in water, more nails, more cannons, more peg people properly attached, thicker paper for flags and sails. They also talked about the creek; its twists and turns, the murky depths, that snapping turtle leviathan, grandmother snake, the rapids, the currents. Surely they would come to know how to better navigate the creek next time!

And no one, absolutely no one, said anything about string.