The Mushroom

When I was about ten years old, my family spent a part of the summer in the mountains. It was a wonderful experience. Each morning, I set out into the sun on the slopes of the mountainside searching for treasures. My fortune might be some rocks or flowers, a pine grove, or a deer or marmot. Life was as if time stood still. I lived in another world—a fairytale world—not the real world. Sometimes I was with my mother, or siblings, and other times I was alone.

One day, while searching a hillside, I came across a most unusual object. I had no idea what it was at the time. It was about 8" in diameter and not quite the shape of a football but more spherical. It was basically white with a little brown tinge here and there. There were others on the hillside of varying sizes. I attempted to pick it up and noticed that it was attached to the ground. With a little twisting and tugging, it broke free and I lifted it up to observe it. It was almost weightless. I rolled it over in my hands to examine it and observed that It was completely enclosed and relatively smooth except for the short stem where it had been attached to the ground. “What is this,” I wondered. “What shall I do with it?” Since I was a boy and it looked like a ball, the best thing I could think of doing with it was to throw it. So I raised it above my head and I threw it to the ground. Poof! It exploded in a cloud of green powder. An area 10 feet in diameter was covered with a dark green powder. That was exciting! I looked around for others and found some a little smaller. I picked those up and threw them at the ground. Each time, a cloud of green powder erupted from the ruptured ball as it hit the ground. Now I had to show others. There weren’t really many of these strange things around, but I searched around for the largest one available. I found one about the size of the first, though heavier. Picking it, I headed back to the camp.

Upon arriving in camp, I found my mother and siblings. I was eager to make my demonstration and thought that no words could express better than the experience itself. I just said, “Watch!” This was going to be the best one yet. I raised it above my head and threw it down at the ground harder than I had any of the others, expecting a green explosion of dusty powder. When it hit the ground, I was more surprised than my audience. Instead of the bomb of green powder, there was a “sploosh” of green “cow manure” looking matter that splattered everywhere. What a shock to me! Apparently, I had selected one that wasn’t “ripe” and instead of being full of powder, it was contained a moist gooey sludge. It was impressive, but not at all what I had anticipated.

In later years, I decided that the object was a mushroom. I had never seen one of these before nor have I seen one since. However, in preparing my story, I learned from my Internet search that they are quite common and are commonly called Puff Balls. I also learned that they are edible, if timely harvested. I anticipate comments such as, “You’ve never heard of a Puff Ball?” Nope. All these years I thought my experience was unique.