As I write this column on Feb. 24 it has been declared a “Snow Day” in School District 71 due to excessive amounts of snow on the roads and problems with buses etc. on local roads.
For many children, such a situation means an extra day to go skiing and snowboarding on Mount Washington – which is fine if you can afford it. For children who cannot go on an organized hill it is also a great opportunity for a play day.
The difference is that it is a creative opportunity where all kinds of sleds, toboggans, cardboard boxes and anything that will slide on a small hill becomes an exciting toy to play with on the slopes. Other forms of creating play include making snowmen and forts.
The example of the snow day is a tiny fraction of the broad field of opportunities to learn from unsupervised play in the outdoors throughout the year. This column is primarily about nature, fishing and hunting and associated sports. Learning through undirected play in these creative ventures can become a lifelong hobby in a person’s leisure time.
Play, that has in the background the rules of proper behaviour, leads to responsible behaviour for the participants without the firm directions of referees or coaches who set and manage the limits. In these types of play children certainly need the guidance and moral directions of adults; but they also learn through their freedom the expectations of following the rules.
My brother Warren (who passed away last week just short of 89 years) and I are two examples from millions of cases of children who were allowed to play in nature and carry the childhood skills into adulthood and lifelong enjoyment that is without end. Books such as Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, The Yearling and Old Yeller are case histories of children allowed to grow up in the world of nature with its hard morality and real-life situations.
Listed below are a few of the outdoor adventures we survived and learned from. Some of the simple rules of our freedom were to always tell our parents where we were going, and be home for supper.
Our early childhood adventures took place on and near Cold Lake (1935 to 1939) and Lake Wabamun (1939 to 1941). As I recall our Cold Lake adventures, we were always accompanied by a good dog, (probably parental insurance).
Boating – We learned early about how to row a superb 14-foot clinker-built boat our grandpa Nadeau had built for us. We also learned to fish jackfish from this boat.
Hunting – Hunting was a part of our family’s culture. Food was a major objective we applied in hunting. From an early age we learned to shoot grouse through the head with a single-shot Cooey .22 rifle. Our dog was trained to bark at a treed grouse so we could get a clear shot at its head – the only acceptable place to aim for in our family.
Simple nature lessons – We and our dogs learned early in the game that the rear end of a skunk can create a smelly mess and the rear end of a porcupine can produce a painful mess. Our encounters with bears were always at a distance thanks to our dogs.
Trapping – From early childhood trapping was a family business with our father and uncle. We learned the important skills of this pioneer industry.
Berry Picking – We learned how to pick wild strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, cranberries, saskatoons, pin cherries, and choke cherries. We also learned that if we wanted pies and jam what came home had to be clean. A five-pound lard pail of wild berries was sure to win some privileged rewards.
We acquired lifelong scars from knife cuts and animal bites. Somehow our mother always dealt with the crisis in an efficient manner that was part of being a pioneer family. In the process we learned the value and hazards of sharp tools.
Fly fishing came early in our trout fishing adventures. Our first eastern brook trout were caught with snelled flies with simple lines and willow poles, in a small stream called Merry Weather Creek. Thus began lifelong careers of fly fishing.
The moral of this column is – Let your children experience the joys of play.
Ralph Shaw is a master fly fisherman who was awarded the Order of Canada in 1984 for his conservation efforts. In 20 years of writing a column in the Comox Valley Record it has won several awards.
