Not Quite Sousa, But A Little Too Close

I know this is going to blow your minds, but yesterday after work, I went and got a cache! It was a fake but impressive 3D-printed rock hidden under the overhang of a larger rock. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy (as they say in the parlance of our times). Except it wasn’t entirely. I felt a little uncomfortable because it was at the entrance of a high school stadium parking lot, and the band was in the middle of practice. No, I’m not castigating the band (I mean, they’re just kids). Here’s the thing: I don’t feel comfortable caching around kids (my own excepted). I don’t think most of us do. While I’m willing to attempt all sorts of shenanigans around adults, ranging from extreme stealth to outright deception, when children are around, it’s a no-go. The only reasons I actually got the cache instead of redeploying to a child-free location are because (a) the practicing was far enough down the parking lot that I didn’t feel I would get unwarranted (or warranted) scrutiny, and (b) the particular entrance was locked off so nobody could go through it in either direction, making me even less of a theoretical threat. To be fair to them, they were high schoolers, not toddlers running toward every possible danger. At the same time, I’m old enough that my definition of “child” pretty much applies to anyone younger than thirty. And while I’m kinda kidding when I say that, I’m also kinda not. I’ve noticed that when I go to Events, I tend to stay away from the (few) younger cachers attending. A couple of years ago, a cacher my daughter’s age approached me with some questions while I was staffing a booth. She was pleasant and nice and all that, but even with her parent present, it still felt weird. I’ve run into her a couple more times since, again with parent or grandparent present, and it still felt odd. Luckily, I was able to introduce her to my caching daughter, and they got along, which made it feel slightly less strange to me.

I know that HQ and our reviewers work hard to make sure that caches are away from places that might be compromising, like playgrounds or schools or anything like that. I wouldn’t even call this cache a failure of the system (it was across from the school proper, next to the public street). It’s just that after all these years, some situations still raise the hairs on the back of my neck. On the other hand, I’d never had a trumpet fanfare when I found a cache before. So, I guess it all evens out?