When Grandma Was A Little Girl - #45

45-The hayride - Snipe hunting!

Have you ever been ‘Snipe hunting? I have! It’s a lot of fun!

When I was about 13 years old I had heard about ‘snipe hunting.’ You go out into the wilderness; we called it boondocks or boonies, when it is dark and you take a small gunnysack or bag and a flashlight. You called out into the dark…'here snipe, snipe, snipe’ and shine your flashlight to spot them and then you capture them and put them into your bag. Well I asked my brother Douglas about going snipe hunting and he said, ‘Don’t ever go.’ and then he told me about snipe hunting. I laughed.

Well, our church youth group was having an activity that was a hayride and snipe hunting close to Halloween. It was going to be at a church member’s home. They lived a little ways out of Alamogordo and there was desert and shrub and mesquite, etc., a perfect spot for snipe hunting! I invited my girlfriend Elaine to come with us. I told her how she had to bring a flashlight, and a paper bag. She was exited! I loved going on the hayrides and told her how much fun it was going to be. When everyone had arrived we told them what snipes looked like. They were white and had red eyes and ran quick but if you shined a flashlight at them it would blind them and stun them and they would sit still and you could just scoop them up and put them into your bag. They were quite harmless and about the size of a big rat. The older teenagers took out all the ‘greenies’ to go snipe hunting. The rest of us stayed back on the hay wagon.

We were all so excited for the others to get their snipes. Then after the older kids had led them out about 50 yards from the house, they all quietly snuck back to the hay wagon. You could hear the other kids out there calling, ‘Here snipe, snipe, snipe. Here snipe, snipe, snipe.’ We were all rolling in laughter! Pretty soon I heard my girlfriend calling out, ‘Diana, come and get me, I’m going to die out here! I can’t find any snipes! Where are we?’ We were just howling with laughter! It was so funny! Right about now you are probably thinking, ‘How mean!’ Well, at the time we thought it was pretty funny.

After about 15 minutes the older kids went back out to find the others and brought them all back. We were all very serious and asked how many snipes they all caught? No one had found a single one! Then we let them in on the joke. They didn’t find it very humorous. They are no such things as snipes. However, they couldn’t wait to try it out on their friends later on!

We had doughnuts and cider and sang songs on the hayride and everyone had fun. Then we all went home. What a fun and memorable night! I have never forgotten it!