Koester Oral History: Craig's Childhood
During Craig's childhood, the land became a site for adventures and excursions, which led to numerous childhood activities.
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Listen to the audio recording to hear Craig Koester's experiences with life and the land.
Childhood Activities
Craig Koester describes his childhood activities in this audio recording.
"We got the grasslands on the east side, savanna in the middle, and the woodlands on the west. The woodlands was also a place of adventure."
Sandstone Outcroppings (0:54-1:55)
"Fine grained sand..."
"Break off a piece and throw it."
"That was a fun kind of thing as a kid, how far can you lob it."
Water Inlands (1:56-2:57)
"There were little inlands. There was some fresh water that would always come in. It was clear enough that we could drink it. We could drink right out of the stream."
"Inlands became a route back. Coming back it became kind of a game going back and forth, because the stream wasn't very wide and so you could kind of gauge yourself. I mean how well can you jump? Can you make it to this side to that side?"
Woodlands (2:58-4:13)
"Out in the back of the house in the woodsthere was a clearing. And that was a wonderful place. We could go up there and have picnics."
"To be able to take some cookies and lemonade up there was great."
"We would follow the woodland path and you would just walk through the backyard and up through the woods. There would be the clearing there, and it is sort of like something out of folklore."
Camping (4:14-4:44)
"I can remember camping back in the woodland area. A right of passage would be that you could make a fire yourself. That was a big deal."
"Making a little campfire back there. In front of the tent, you knowcooking some hamburgers, beans, or something. That was a great overnight thing."
Sumac and Wild Plums (4:45-7:44)
"Sumac was the plant that began to come in to the area. It wasn't cultivated, it wasn't tended, it was just let go."
"There use to be an older farm lady that loved the wild plums and would make preserves out of them."
Seasonal Adventures (7:45-10:56)
"Winter was a favorite season. Tobogganing was huge. We would have this wide open space where you could take the toboggan and you would keep making a run from the top to the bottom, until you would get down to the barb wire fencing at the bottom."
"During the spring thaw was a magical time in which the snow would be melting and all of a sudden we would have not just a stream but a river. You would get these dramatic currents. You could take fragments of bark, and create these mini boats for sailing down the currents."
Conservation Corridor (10:56-13:39)
"This notion of a corridor that it is not just an isolated WMA, but it is actually a piece of a much larger puzzle in which people have been preserving parts of it, and you begin putting them together. And pretty soon there's a rather significant environmental area and wildlife area. And I remember being able to walk it, and intuitively know how neat that was."