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All the World's a Stage #1: Kindergarten LbNA #10502 (ARCHIVED)

Owner:Renfield
Plant date:Aug 29, 2004
Location: Lakewood Forest Preserve Winter Sports Area, 24069 W Ivanhoe Rd, Wauconda, IL
City:Wauconda
County:Lake
State:Illinois
Boxes:1
Found by: SkyGal48
Last found:Oct 15, 2018
Status:FFFFFFFFFaFFU
Last edited:Oct 14, 2018
Difficulty: Easy
Time: 45 minutes

Background:
In the early years of my new home and job, I spent a lot of time on the nearby Millennium trail and with a community theater group. Some of the best experiences I had and friends I made were on that trail and/or with that group.

This series is hidden on that trail and the clues are reminders of the shows that I was part of. “All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” (a.k.a. “Kindergarten”) was my first show in June of 2003. It was based on the writings of Robert Fulgham and featured his article of the same name (see end of clues).

Parking for the Millennium trail is in the Lakewood Forest Preserve Winter Sports Area just south of Rt. 176 on the east side of Fairfield Rd. Clues start at the trailhead at the very end of the parking lot. Click here for a map:

Lakewood Forest Preserve Winter Sports Area



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Have some warm cookies and milk before you start as they are good for you and will give you the strength to follow the clues!

The paved path leaves the parking lot and quickly comes to a four way intersection. Turning right (Millennium Trail East) it becomes a crushed stone path winding past prairie fields and quickly enters a wooded area.

The brush and trees are tightly packed on either side giving the effect of being lost in the woods while only being a stone’s throw from roads and homes. You’ll be going steadily downhill and then climb to the top of a ridge.

At the top is a trail marker. Look both ways, hold hands and stick together as you follow its directions to go to your right and up a steep incline.

At the top of the incline the trail snakes right and then left as the forest puts its arms around you.

Why? I don’t know, but the roots go down and the tree grows up and nobody knows why that happens either.

The trail soon comes to a “Y”. Go right. You will go down the incline and over a wooden bridge. Take a moment and LOOK!

As the trail turns up and to the left, don’t be surprised if you meet a squirrel or two on this trail. Be aware of wonder!

On the right will be a park bench. Is it time to take a nap?

Continue until you come to a culvert on the right. When you get there, look directly right.

A short distance up the hill you will see a tree stump that points up to the sky. Inside at the very bottom, you will find several loose pieces of bark covering the box.

As this is a popular hiking area, please be wary of passersby and remember, as we learned in Kindergarten, put things back where you found them!

The area can also get very wet, so please make sure each of the snaps on the box are locked down and the bark is replaced.

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“All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned In Kindergarten"
By Robert Fulgham

Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in Kindergarten.
Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school.

These are the things I learned..

- Share everything
- Play fair
- Don't hit people
- Put things back where you found them
- Clean up your own mess
- Don't take things that aren't yours
- Say sorry when you hurt somebody
- Wash your hands before you eat
- Flush
- Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
Take a nap every afternoon.

When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
Be aware of wonder.

Remember the little seed in the plastic cup? The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that. Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the plastic cup - they all die. So do we.
And then remember the book about Dick and Jane and the first word you learned, the biggest word of all: LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and sane living.

Think of what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world had cookies and milk about 3 o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap.

Or if we had a basic policy in our nation and other nations to always put things back where we found them and cleaned up our own messes.

And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world,
it is best to hold hands and stick together.






Hike length: 1-2 miles