The Slice: Not much to say but ‘Oh, dear’

I wouldn’t want this to sound like I am badmouthing kids who live in the Northwest’s two big cities.

I’m sure many boys and girls in Seattle and Portland are commendable youngsters. It’s not their fault if they don’t always sound like budding naturalists.

But the fact remains, some of the things those kids say just don’t resemble utterances that would come from a “Near Nature” Inland Northwest child.

I’ll give you an example.

Rich Victor in Moses Lake recently had relatives visiting from Portland.

His young niece saw a deer out behind the house.

“Uncle Rich,” she said. “That dog looks like a llama.”

How to spot a rookie camper: Ingeburg Fisher didn’t do any camping while growing up in war-torn Germany. But after marrying a guy in the U.S. Air Force and moving to the states, she was willing to give it a try.

So one summer in the ’50s, she and her husband and another couple were touring the redwoods country in California.

At a new campsite, Fisher wanted to be helpful. So she got a fire going before anyone knew what she was up to.

Everyone was amazed at how quickly she had accomplished that. But their enthusiasm waned when they figured out that she had used their tent stakes for kindling.

“I have never lived that down,” said Fisher.

Another great moment in camping: A child Denise Marcum described as “feral” once flung a flaming marshmallow and set Marcum’s hair on fire.

Zoology fail: After seeing his mother and the family cat chasing a mouse, Kristi Luttrull’s teenage nephew said, “I sure hope that thing didn’t lay eggs in here.”

So, OK. Not all local kids know their animals.

Slice answers: Several readers fondly recalled listening to Seattle sportscaster Leo Lassen describe baseball games.

And apparently failing to write down a great idea and subsequently forgetting it is a common experience.

Today’s Slice question: Where did you most recently experience sticker shock?