The Scavenger Hunt

Back when I was a young teenager, we had to invent fun things to do. There were no electronic games or smart phones. I regret some of the things we did, but no one ever got hurt and we didn’t do any permanent property damage. The following story describes one of our fun activities.

The Scavenger Hunt

 

In the years between 1956 and 1960, I was a young teenager and the kids in our neighborhood didn’t have much to do so we invented our own entertainment. Scavenger Hunts were popular during this time and we used this to our advantage. A Scavenger Hunt is defined as a game in which individuals or teams are sent out to to accumulate,without purchasing, a series of outlandish or humorous items on a list. The winner is the team that returns first with all the items on the list. We would go to people’s houses out of our neighborhood and tell them we were on a scavenger hunt and we would ask for one egg. Soon, we had a dozen eggs. There were some people around the neighborhood that didn’t like kids and we would take the eggs we collected and throw them at their front door. This often resulted in us being chased by the recipient. I can remember one long chase that actually scared me because the guy actually got close to catching us. There was one house we hit three times because the guy was really a grouch. On the third time we hit him, the guy came out carrying a shotgun and fired it. I don’t know whether he was shooting at us or into the air, but it scared us bad enough that we never hit his house again.

 

We also used the scavenger hunt angle when we were out running around and got hungry. We would ask for a piece of bread, then a piece of lunch meat, then a pickle, and we had us a sandwich. The good people of Phillips, Texas never caught on because we never went to the same area twice.

 

I often wish I were a teenager again and have the knowledge I have today, Oh would I do things differently.

Typical list for a scavenger hunt.

Thank you for reading The Scavenger Hunt,

Hawg Jaw Bill