So, as we reminisce about the vast number of experiences we've encountered and the tremendous depth of knowledge we've acquired over these many, many, many minutes spent as letterboxers (let the reader chuckle while realizing this amounts to a nubish 1 month today), we are reminded of a humorous incident which occurred on the day of giving thanks, namely Thanksgiving day.

Here's where the waxing poetic wears off and we resume normal conversational style

We have been eagerly anticipating meeting other boxers on the trail since day one. Realizing that letterboxing has been around for over 150 years and we just recently learned of it caused us, initially, to suspect that everyone else knew of it prior to us learning of it. We must be the last ones getting on the train.

After a week or so, the hope of meeting other boxers on the trail was still there, but reality set in. Figuring that there are about 15,000 members on AQ and allowing for the same on LbNA, then rounding WAY up for people who just never wanted to register, we estimated probably no more than 50,000 boxers world wide. Which got us to thinking that even if they all lived in the Houston area (a city of at least 4 million people), that's only 1 in 80 people.

So, we kept boxing and figured that one day it would happen but we weren't holding our breath.

On Thanksgiving day, we took a group of friends and family out boxing. Some of our group decided to wait near the park entrance while the rest of us traipsed through the woods.

While we were quite a ways back into the woods, we suddenly got a phone call from one of the people we had left near the entrance. They told us that they thought they had just seen other letterboxers in the park. When they told us that the "boxers" were following a fence line (who walks along the fence in a park unless they're following clues?) with a bunch of papers in their hands all on Thanksgiving day, it all added up to "boxers in the park"!

On our way back out, I listened intently for their presence because I really wanted for us to be able to get our first eXchange. With a child on my shoulders, as I'm walking along, I hear them, just over a small hill 50 feet to my left.

I take the side trail and "sneak" up to them (I guess that's what the Key Note Sneakers do) surveying their activities attempting to confirm that they are indeed boxers. It was obvious. The moment we'd been waiting for had arrived!!!

So, cheerfully, I exclaim, "Care for an eXchange?" To which they promptly reply, "What the kids?"

Now, I don't know how you feel about your friends and family, but any child that is riding on my shoulders is NOT available for sale, trade, barter, or any such thing! I kind of thought they were just trying to be funny and tried to quickly dismiss it. Nevertheless, they seemed a little puzzled.

This, of course, also puzzled me. So, in the ensuing conversation, it was determined that they were indeed letterboxing (not geocaching or some such) which I thought might be the case since they didn't come back to the topic of the eXchange.

In the end, it was learned that this was their first time out. They didn't know anything about AQ, stamps, logbooks, eXchanges, trailnames -- you know, the kind of stuff nobody knows about on their first day.

They had lots of questions. We encouraged them as much as we could and provided information as needed. It was such a kick to see the tables turned suddenly. From their perspective we aren't nubees, we're experienced. At one point they mentioned something like, "You mean, you've already planted a letterbox?" To which, we're thinking (almost sheepishly), "Yes, we've only planted a letterbox."

I'm sure this is just a sample of what dewberry must feel like. The first box we ever found was planted by her. We still look up to her like a mentor. She's really put a lot of time into answering questions for us and encouraging us. Her efforts are now multiplied through us and others and she may not even realize it.

As we were hiking back to the car, the events that had just transpired were rolling around in my brain. I couldn't help but laugh out loud. Not at the new boxers. The thing that cracked me up most was placing myself in their shoes. What would I have said (if I didn't know what an eXchange was) had some stranger crested a hill, child on shoulders, and asked, "Care for an eXchange?" I'm sure I'd have thought they were talking about the kids.

So, if you're the new letterboxers that met the Key Note Sneakers out on the trail, welcome to the Atlas Quest community!

Now, hurry up and carve some stamps so that if we bump into you all again, we can actually eXchange!!!

Key Note Sneakers (only a little disappointed that our X count is still zero)

--If laughter is the best medicine, then Thanksgiving came with a full dose!!

What a delightful story! I can just picture it happening.
Now I get to give you a new tidbit. The Official Letterboxing Greeting, unofficially of course, is "Which way is North?" If the other person is indeed a letterboxer they will point straight up in the sky, thus proving that they are either insane or another letterboxer, which is essentially one and the same in many cases. This would also require them to actually know about the Official greeting however.
If they stumble around trying to point you in the direction of true or magnetic north, then they either have no idea what letterboxing is or they just haven't learned about the Official greeting yet. In which case the Official greeting is no help whatsoever.
Does that help?
S

In which case the Official greeting is no help whatsoever.
Does that help?

Clear as mud Stacy.

And, that was a wonderful story. We had a similar experience where we were the "experts" when we were in fact newbies.

Thank you for posting this. I'm new to letterboxing and I wondered what to say to somebody I thought was out there doing the same thing! Now I know.
keepin up with the jones

I've had quite a few exchanges at gatherings and such.
But I thought I probably wouldn't just bump into anybody out on the trail.

But it happened a few months ago. I just finished a series of eight boxes. I was walking back through the park towards the location of where box #7 was.

There were two girls there. One had papers in her hand, the other was trying to hide something behind her back. But they saw the logbook I was carrying and said "Whew! So you're a letterboxer too?"

I was so tickled to get to meet them. They were new too. I think I was their first exchange. And I felt like the "experienced" letterboxer.

In a hobby like ours, anything's bound to happen

=0D

Such fun!

S~N~K

The kittens and I met Nowak girls and the 3MOs on our very first day out. I didn't have a clue what they meant when they asked if I wanted to exchange!
S