"Winter View from Beech"

This little mountain near our house has been a favorite hike the thirty years we’ve lived here. It looks over Lakes Forest and Allure and Potash Mountain. Hadley Mountain is the long flat ridge at the horizon on the left. I’ve been up Beech a couple times this winter, once on snowshoes. Since the trail is close to our house it’s great anytime we feel the need to hike to a summit. We’ve watched sunsets, picnicked, and marveled as a swarm of dragonflies swooped in and gobbled up all the mosquitoes that were chewing on us. Through the years we have made the hike up Beech Mountain as a part of birthday parties, to help use up some of the energy of fired-up children. That worked perfectly except for one year…

Our oldest was in third grade and we told him ahead of time he could have a birthday party that year. Before we picked up any invitations he had invited around eighteen of the wildest kids in his grade. We never did figure out if he did that for self-preservation or because he thought he needed a little more excitement in his life. Maybe making friends with the little felons-to-be would be better than having them as enemies. It seemed like a good idea to have the dreaded party on a Friday right after school, leaving our weekend free. That day we watched in horror as the mad pack of monsters rocketed off the bus and into our yard, punching and wrestling as they came. One mom, a teacher at the school, dropped off her more mellow child. She surveyed the group and skeptically asked, “Did you know you have the biggest trouble makers in the class here?” I mumbled something about how we were getting the picture. She quietly continued, “Did you know they will be at their hyped-up worst on Friday after school?” I just hung my head and hoped we would have the same number of live children at the end of the four hours. We tried to have one of our nature walks up the beautiful little mountain but the uncontrolled mob just ran ahead at break neck speed. When Gino and I came huffing and puffing to the summit they had been there a while, some hanging ape-like from the dwarfed oaks. We were highly encouraged that no one had been pushed off the cliff when one little blond-haired devil walked over to another resting boy, hauled off and punched him in the face, hard. They all were quiet for a moment as I chastised him and tried to figure out why he felt the urge to assault someone at that moment.

We had a fast trip back down the trail and were getting the food together when there was another commotion in the yard. For some unknown reason, a younger boy from a few houses down the road decided to ride his bike up to antagonize the unruly gang with insults, which united them all into a single force. They chased him away and to everyone’s disbelief the misguided youth came back with tomatoes as ammo. Needless to say, they were on him like a pack of hyenas before he could escape, or we could get out to the road for a rescue. When we pulled the predators off him he was sweaty, wide eyed and covered with tomato pulp. The best thing we could think of was to invite him to the party. The rest of the time seems like a blur and remarkably we were able to safely hand off each child to his parents as they arrived. It was many years before we offered to have another birthday celebration. It’s been over twenty years now, since the memorable party and our hikes up Beech are a lot more relaxing and pleasant these days. Sometimes I wonder about the party guests, where are they now?


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