Have you ever played eye spy with a kid who is learning to spell? If you haven’t, you really need to do so, if only to be able to tell stories like this. We used to do a lot of camping when I was a kid, and as I was the eldest of 4 kids in our family, I probably remember more of these stories than the others.
So anyway, it was a nice night and we were all sitting around the campfire. We started playing eye spy and were through a few rounds when it was little sister’s turn. “I spy with my little eye, something beginning with F”.
It started out simple enough. Fan, Foot, Fork, Fire, Firewood, Fresh Bread. Let’s face it, there are not too many things around a campsite that actually do begin with the letter F. What started out as a fun campfire game turned into seething frustration for my parents. My little sister has always been stubborn, so she was holding out as long as possible.
After who knows how long, we all relented and told my little sister she had won, and to tell us what the item was. She looked at us all like we were stupid, pointed at a pair of thongs* and said “A Fong”.
To this day, even though she is now in her 30’s, my sister still gets picked on for that at family gatherings.
*For any international readers who might not know, thongs are also flip flops, or jandles if you’re from New Zealand.
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