Before Jenny submitted her list two weeks ago I had never heard of letterboxing, and a guess at what it was would have been far off the mark. I must admit that after investigating the website I'm still not 100% sure that I know how it works. Here is Jenny's summary taken directly from her list:
This sounds awesome to me. As a little guy (although after Jessica pulled out some family pictures on Mother's Day, and it appears I wasn't so little but more a shrunken Lou Grant from the Mary Tyler Moore Show) the idea of hidden treasure, fossils, maps, etc. was always very exciting to me. The problem was, with the exception of Easter egg hunts, I would have to bury these treasures on my own, or create my own maps, or secret language (via a club called RAD in the second grade) for any of this to be possible. Letterboxing really appeals to this inner-child, never-extinguished desire to find such things. You can read all about it on your own at letterboxing.org. I will try to sum it up as best as I can, but a recommend from the editor is to check out the website because I might not know what I'm talking about.
Letterboxing: I am on a never-ending treasure hunt of finding hidden packages from strangers in trees, under rocks, and in streetlights all over the country. In letterboxing, you carve your own stamp and you find other people’s stamps. You leave your stamp in their hidden notebook and put theirs in your notebook.
Basically, from what I understand, there are about 20,000 letterboxes buried throughout North America, with more in other areas of the world. Every letterbox contains a logbook, a stamp, and an inkpad. Every letterboxer has their own stamp (sort of their identity), trail name, and logbook to keep track of the letterboxes they find. When you find a letterbox you put it's stamp into your logbook and leave behind your stamp, your name, and maybe a little write-up about how you found the box in their logbook. This is a seemingly neverending treasure hunt, where while the reward isn't gold or eternal life or three wishes, it seems like it would be pretty exciting to find one.
While I am really interested in this activity, it would probably take some time to get started up. You can purchase a stamp from somewhere like the Teacher's Resource, or you can choose to make your own. Really, the website covers all of this and tons more. Once you get your letterboxing identity together you can start looking at clues in your area to find some of them. I like this. I hope that one day I choose to actually participate, but maybe for now I will just bombard Jenny with questions every time I see her. For now can you answer just a few if you are reading this? How many letterboxes have you found? Is this something that Mike also participates in, or would he just break down and cry? What does your stamp look like? (If I am getting too personal, please stop me). Have you done this outside of Maryland?
Also, this seems like a good activity to do with kids. Maybe I will promise myself now that if somehow I have a kid I will force them to participate in letterboxing, something they may love in their youth, but may end up talking to a psychiatrist about if I force them to continue doing it into their 20's. Here are some letterboxing pictures whether you are interested or not:
4 comments:
i spent a lot of time looking into this phenom too, i guess it appeals to my inner nerd child.
but was disappointed that a lot of the clues/posts seem to be outdated? like some i read were from 2004 or 2006. so i wasn't sure if the letterboxes would still be in their rightful place and/or the owner still checked on their letterbox.
Also, the clues were too specific and "oraps". I thought the whole point of this was to have to guess the meaning of clues, but these clues are like, "Go 10 feet and you will see a large Oak tree next to an old water mill. Look behind the tree". Well I guess if you consider the fact that a tree has no front or back, that is pretty fucking vague.
The clues can be really obvious, but there are some labeled "mystery" for a given state (MD has plenty) that are totally cryptic--all you have is the state and some crazy poem.
Mike is often with me when i find them, and he helps look, but i do most of the legwork (bringing stuff, printing out clues). My stamp is the part of the Ms. Pacman arcade game where Mr. and Ms. kiss and a heart appears above them. I used to be just Ms. Pac-Man but Mike wanted representation too so I carved a new stamp!
Jenny still posting under Mike's name. I've found 26 so far. The clues don't get outdated so long as no one disturbs the box. City ones go missing more often b/c people come across them, I guess, but those are the most fun to find because people walk by them every day and don't know they're there!
Anyone who wants to come with me next time I find a Baltimore one is welcome!
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