A Week of Firsts
My five-year-old great-niece and I went camping in my tiny house this week. We picked Fort Mountain State Park because we had been there twice before. (See No More Pretending) Since I booked a site only days ahead, we didn’t get our favorite site 68. This would be our first time at site 13. It turned out to be a week of firsts.
Since I forgot to pack our brushes, it would also be our first time to comb her hair. She wasn’t happy with me, but we combed through it. After an hour of tag and climbing at the playground, we played seventeen holes of miniature golf. Hole eighteen doesn’t return the ball. She scored a two, three times—pretty good for a first-timer.
Another reason we chose Fort Mountain was because the lake is within walking distance of the campground, and she is not ready to say goodbye to summer. The overcast skies made 70 degrees feel like 55, yet the child played in the water. After stepping in the icy water, I agreed to help make sandcastles with my sweatshirt on. We had the beach to ourselves—another first.
After a warm shower (her idea) and a cup of hot chocolate, we returned to the playground hoping to meet new friends. Two couples I knew from teaching their children at Adairsville Elementary were there with four of their grandchildren. What are the odds? My niece and the grandchildren were instant friends. The adults caught up as we watched the children play drop tag—another first.
Later that night at our friend’s sites 68 and 67, my niece played a game she had never played, ate her first s’more, and painted her first rock. The next day, she hid hers at our campsite. While playing with two of the grandchildren, she witnessed two other children finding the painted rocks and rehiding them for others to discover.
As we climbed to the top of Fort Mountain to see the fire tower and an overlook, she saw an entire city from a whole new perspective. My little niece wanted to climb over the railing and “go there.” Seeing farmland, ponds, roads, cars, buildings, houses, and hawks in flight may have been the most mind-blowing experience of her young life, but her new friends? That’s all she has talked about since we left. What a joy to experience so many firsts through the eyes of a child. It was truly a week of firsts.
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Joy M. Walker