Vacation Memories, and More

Gone with the Waves

When I was young, our family vacationed at the beach. My dad was always the first to dive into the waves, throwing his hair back as he came up out of the water. On one particular day, he started waving his arms, shouting, “It’s deep! It’s deep!” We all heeded his warning and immediately headed for land. It wasn’t until we’d reached the shoreline that we realized he was saying, “My teeth! My teeth!” He had lost his dentures, and they were never seen again! —Elizabeth V. Kozlowski Linthicum, maryland

Dumber than Your Average Bear

While visiting Yellowstone National Park some years back, my friend and I met with a ranger who was in charge of maintaining order in the campsites. He showed us how to operate the new garbage cans; the complex models had a rotating upper section and a special door designed to keep out hungry bears. Impressed, I asked the ranger whether the fortified cans were working as intended. He shook his head with a smile. “Not really,” he said. “We’re finding considerable overlap in the intelligence of the smartest bears and the dumbest campers.” —Guy Nelson Seattle, Washington

The Stamp Act

Money was tight, and we had to cut back on all excess spending. Colleen, my six-year-old daughter, came to me with an envelope and asked me to mail it for her. She’d received a letter from her grandmother the day before, and she handed me the same envelope, the flap crudely sealed with tape. She had scrawled across the front RETURN TO SENDER. “What’s this?” I asked. “I’m saving money on a stamp!” she explained. With tears flowing, I hugged her hard. Things got better, but that memory always stuck with me. —Sharon Haiste prince george, british columbia