few months ago, I learned about letterboxing and was extremely
excited to start participating in the adventure. Over the past
couple of months I have placed and located several boxes in my
area. I received a message from Glenn (of Tacoma) the day I placed
my first letterbox (in July, I think) that included a video of their
antics at my letterbox that I placed in my hometown near the Seattle
area. I perceived the 15 second video clip they included as
something pretty jovial and sort of a gentle 'hazing' to welcome me
into the sport of letterboxing. I took it as a friendly gesture not
as a threat or intimidation. The video suggested that they found
the box and simply tossed it in the general location of its actual
hiding place and left without putting it back. This was just a
joke, upon further inspection, the letterbox was actual re-hidden
safe and sound in its intended hiding place. I'm not sure what else
has transpired in this community regarding the various men in the
Seattle/Tacoma area. I just want to defend Glenn in this particular
case as I never felt threatened or intimidated by his antics in this
case.
I'm a married, stay at home, homeschooling mom (in the Army
Reserves) who joined this sport to provide us with an excuse to get
out and enjoy the outdoors and to lessen the stress we feel as a
family which has two members who may, at any moment, be called upon
to defend the country (which is a perpetual VERY STRESSFUL thought
in my mind) in far off locations. We already loved doing outdoorsy
activities and this sport seemed to add an additional intriguing
element to it and provided an opportunity for the family to get
together during an exciting activity. It provided me with an
opportunity to get 'artistic' as it required us to create stamps and
come up with interesting ideas for creating the containers to hide
the letterbox contents in and to research the various locations in
which we could try to hide the boxes. I also added an extra
challenge to myself, in trying to participate in the sport without
spending a tremendous fortune in the process. This encouraged me to
scour thrift shops and dollar stores trying to procure items for the
contents of the letterboxes. I always love a 'fiscal' challenge--
I guess that's the former professional working woman turned SAHM
trying to make ends meet on one salary transitional quality showing
through here. :)
Anyway, I have really enjoyed many aspects of letterboxing (despite
my car getting broken into and over $2,000 of contents being
stolen/damaged during a recent letterbox hunt in Tacoma). I have
visited myriad locations that are beautiful, breathtaking,
exsquisite, challenging, daunting and historical--places that I
would never have known about prior to letterboxing--all because of
this sport. I have seen animals and plants that I've never seen
before. I've learned how to identify various types of trees. I
climbed mountains with a baby on my back that I would have never
previously attempted by myself (with a 3 year old in tow). I've
camped at locations around our area in pursuit of far off
letterboxes. I've climbed over an incredible obstacle and down a 20
foot cliff trying to locate a letterbox (with a baby on my back & a
3 year old in tow--Snoq Falls--what a rush!!!). I've met many
friendly people (virtually) through email exchanges upon finding
their/my letterboxes along the way. All of these people I have
found to be quite interesting and friendly and people, even despite
our probable differences in many other different areas/aspects of
life, that I think I could become close friends with if we ever were
to meet in person. All of these positive things have resulted from
our letterboxing in my area (predominantly Seattle, but I've
ventured a bit into Oregon and Northern California, as well).
As I'm quite new to this sport, I'm not sure what events, if any,
may have transpired in this area before my learning about and recent
involvement in the sport. I know, however, in a large community
such as this the letterboxing of North America (or is it the world
now?), that people are united by one major reason, which is they
have a passion for the hobby of letterboxing. There may exist many
other differences among these people, but for this instant and
regarding this activity, they all seem to share a passion and an
intense feeling for letterboxing. Can't that be enough, especially
in a world that is so threatened by outsiders whose sole mission in
life seems to be to destroy our culture in its entirety?
Letterboxing is one more aspect where we, as a
people/nation/country/hobby group, can unite and share joy and a
common goal in the sheer act of placing and locating letterboxes.
I hope many positive things will result from letterboxing in the
future, in my case, my life and the lives of many members of my
family and close friends, have been richly blessed by our recent
participation in letterboxing. I hope you have been so wonderfully
and positively blessed, as well, in your pursuits of the sport.
Bethany Lee
aka 'dvn2r ckr' otherwise known as Adventure Seeker
DuPont, WA
F48P15X6
--- In letterbox-usa@y..., "A.D."
> Anyone else notice that all these opinionated men with
> the crappy attitudes all seem to hail from this circle
> in Washington?
>
> First you've got immature Glenn and his childish
> antics.
>
> Why BBurk is still here after he sent threatening
> emails and video about what he and Glenn do to the
> letterboxes of those he doesn't like to other list
> members is beyond my scope of comprehension. (And yes,
> clues were probably pulled to those boxes you keep
> harping about, alright, already? Or would you like
> someone to do to them what you two do to other's
> boxes? Might be safer to have those clues pulled
> afterall...)
>
> And now a self proclaimed stamp-art critic who digs
> himself only deeper and deeper but won't see his part
> in the debacle- are you sure you aren't that nasty
> Simon guy from that stupid Idol show on Fox?
>
> Maybe I really don't want to visit Seattle--I don't
> think I really want to be rated on a Roseanne Barr/Meg
> Ryan scale. Gag!
>
>
>
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