Nostalgia
I had unusual interests as a child. Our farm was riddled with caves, plus there were plenty of limestone outcrops and a large bluff in a bush-block at the back of the farm. My father had explored the caves when he was younger and had passed on that interest to us as children. Many an expedition we would pack a sack containing matches and candles and set out to explore the caves, later converting the candles to carbide lamps. Some caves contained beautiful stalagmites (g for ground) and stalactites (c for ceiling) while others had glow worms or giant cave wetas and one had a big lake that contained equally big eels. So, some of these expeditions involved fishing. We used a rope and shark hook for the eels and brought home some big ones over the years – bigger than us children. Other expeditions involved searching the limestone outcrops for fossils and we found several giant scallop shells in these, or searching for moa bones both in the caves and limestone outcrops. We were successful in those searches too. Our childhood was one of adventure and the belief that if we searched for something, we would find it, not every time of course, but on occasion.
As I was sorting through the boxes yesterday, I came across two that brought back these memories. One was a shoe box, with a few calcified moas bones inside. The bones weren’t complete, but ones I had held onto since childhood. My brother always kept the good ones, but allowed me this box of pieces.
In a further box, I came across two old dictionaries. I knew immediately what these held as it was only last year that I had visited my brother who had inherited my mother’s Encyclopaedia Britannica set. As I was sitting in his lounge, I suddenly remembered that I used to stash my four-leaf clovers in these books and I knew exactly which one to pull out. Sure enough, there was a collection of clovers.
Finding four-leaf clovers was another pastime I had as a child. Again, aimed with the belief that if I searched for something, I would find it, I scanned every clover patch I came across. One day, I was searching in some long grass in the orchard, an area that was fenced off from the sheep and cattle, and came across a patch that contained heaps of these four and five-leafed clovers. The plant must have contained a mutation, as I found many more of these as I visited the same spot over the years. I ended up giving most of these away, attaching them to cards I sent to my friends.
I continue to search clover patches and I am still successful in finding the four-leafed ones, but generally only one at a time. I haven’t ever found another plant like that one on the farm.
When I came across the dictionaries yesterday, I pulled them both up and found five four-leafed clovers. These weren’t from the farm, but ones I had found later in my searches. I would press the clovers flat with my thumb, then close the book on them, knowing that they would retain the shape due to the weight of the pages around them. I notice I didn’t do that good a job of this latest lot, with some of the leaves folded over. However, it is nice to have found them, as the dictionaries are now in a box to be re-stored. I couldn’t quite bring myself to burn them but I also wonder who would want old moulding dictionaries these days. Anyone reading this, they are free to a good home.