Mushroom Hunting

I vaguley remember the time my parents took ME mushroom hunting, while I do enjoy mother nature, I am not one to stay in the actual woods long. Call it a fear of bugs, mice and snakes, I'm not sure. However, my son Frankie LOVES all things naturey (no not a dictionary word, but more of a TOTH word). So I had called my Dad and asked if he was going mushroom hunting this year. He wasn't sure, as in the past few years he had not found very many and was very discouraged. Well I was bummed because I knew Frank would LOVE to get to go into "the jungle" (what he used to call the woods when he was little) and spend the day just wandering around.

I had told my friend Barb about this. She goes mushroom hunting every year. She has been on a hot streak! She went out the other day and found over 600 mushrooms! Now I do not enjoy mushrooms, store bought or wild. While some in my house do, they do not care for the Morells so I did not know much about hunting for them. What I learned is, over 600 is a HUGE amount, that usually is a total for like a whole season! She said she wished she had Frankie with her cuz she thought he would really enjoy it! She decided to go again the next day and offered to take him! I was soooo excited for him! At first, he said  he did not want to go if I did not go, but we discussed it and he finally  got so excited to go, he decided he would be fine. He informed me the next day he had a dream that Barb was trying to kill him in the woods and he had to find a deer to jump on and get away, but that he knew that would NEVER really happen! lol The next day, they originally were going to go back to the same place and I was going to take Frankie there, but then Barb called and said they decided to go some place else, and had me drop him off at her mom's house.

O.K., I'm going to be completely honest, no matter the ridicule, because they were no longer going to be right near our house, I will now (after the fact) admit, to being a little nervous. I totally trust Barb with him, but it was supposed to rain, and I kept picturing him getting hit by lighteing! O.K. ,laugh all you want, but this is how my warped brain works. HOWEVER Frankie was a little nervous too, (he had the stomach squrmies) so I played it cool. He asked me "now how long have you known Barb?" I told him atleast 5-6 yrs, he said, "it took you 12 years before you trusted Dad to take me somewhere!" lol, ok, well he was younger then.....and besides, I am working on cutting those strings, AND I DID let him go and told him I was fine with it EVEN though I had "squirmies" in my stomach also as I drove away. Ofcourse I also was driving on a side of town I was not familiar with, so it could have been that as well! lol

O.K., back to the mushroom hunting. I thought about calling about 15 mins into it, but decided I would not be that kind of parent. I also thought about sending a camera and saying please take a picture of his first mushroom hunting trip, but again, didn't want to be that parent either. Luckily Barb knows me well enough, that she took pictures with her camera without me even haing to ask! She also let him call me (again, this is why I love Barb, she knows and accepts my quirks and works with them, OTHERS could take note! lol ) about 15 mins into the hunting! lol They had found a bunch already and he was having a WONDERFUL time. Well that news finally let the squirmies go away and I was able to calm down. He also called me a couple more times, much to my heart's joy! lol

They ended up finding over 700 mushrooms! She let Frankie keep the ones he found (3 3/4 pounds, and since we don't like them, he was able to sell them (@ $20 a pound) (Grandad sold 2 bags for him at work)  which he was able to add to the $ they are saving up to go to South Carolina. So overall he had a Great Day, and wonderful memories were made. Barb was able to tell me lots of funny Frankie stories, that I will not embarass him with by puting on here but you can bet I WILL be putting them in his memory box! lol