Here in Germany they really get into their ice cream on sunny days. There are banker dudes in suits swirling their tongues around two scoopers, moms pushing strollers one handed and kids on kick-boards adding more danger to their tricks while balancing a Cola-Lime Kugel  against Himmel-Blau at racing speeds. It’s almost like you have to get an ice cream or at least one for your kid, especially when every third person you pass is brandishing a cone.  I too get into this German tradition so that’s what I did for my upper grade Monday English pupils the other day.

It was so sunny and hot we did a trip to the Ice cream shop. The Ice cream girl studied in new Zealand and so in sweet Kiwi-inflected English asked the kids how they were, most answered “chocolate please”. The younger Tuesday students were of course jealous and insisted that for their next English lesson they too would “ice cream kriegen!!!” 

Since the Tuesday class is much too large to take over an ice cream shop without reserving it I came up with the perfect solution. I went and bought 16 non-additive-non-preservative-non-fake-colored popsicles shaped into a pointing finger. I wrote on the back of a large piece of paper, the lyrics to a new song about walking through the forest, set roughly to the American folk song tune of “Jimmy crack- corn”. We would go walking in the forest near our school munching on popsicles-pointers and sing our new song. 

We did just that, acting out the motions in the song, pointing at the objects with our popsicles, tree, sky, squirrel!! And on we went, quite happy. Amidst the chirping of birds and eight year olds I began to hear a soft music in the distance, something beautiful and airy. “Quiet” I commanded the children, cupping my ear, “Listen.” Some heard, some didn’t, some figured I was just making things up as usual.

We went further along the wide path into the woods.  More of the children began to hear the light strains of something classical. We made comments about fairies. (Well I did mostly, seems eight year olds don’t believe in fairies these days). We reached a point where we could distinctly hear that the source of the music was coming from within the forest. We would have to take one of those little goat paths to get there and travel a bit downhill. 

Emily, who goes into the forest every Thursday with the forest AG, was confident in the twisty-turny ways of the little strip of matted brush that was the path. We followed her through the wild berry thorns, overturned trees and swapping branches. Kids might not believe in fairies but they believe in witches! I tested, “Maybe this is Hexen-Musik and the music has enchanted us and now we have no choice but to follow this path…”  

Boom! There went Levin, he sprung over a bush and high-tailed it back toward the main road.  “Levin!” I called “I’m just playing! And don’t worry I have my own Zauberkraft!” 

 Levin looked into my eyes, decided to trust me and was back in the single file of kids between me and Elsie the assistant who came along with us to help with the Ausflug. The music became clearer as we turned right and then left and then down further deeper into the forest. The brush created walls on the sides of us and the leafy tree tops shaded the bright sun.  

Lea, who was sure it was the flute playing, because she played it herself, turned back to me and said, “Tiffany you know if you weren’t here I’m sure I’d be too scared to do this”. I didn’t remind her that it was me who started talking about witches to begin with. I just hurried behind her, keeping my eyes on Emily as she led the way, following the notes. Just like in the Pied Piper fairy tale, an analogy I didn’t share with them this time. 

Finally the music was loud! But we still saw nothing. We came out of the grassy labyrinth into a small sunny clearing. The paths ended here. We paused there in the sun. Because of all of the rain earlier in the day, everything shone. We listened excitedly, the kid’s eyes as sparkly as the forest around.   

Nicolas ventured out of the sunny pocket moving like an Indian scout. We watched him expectantly. Into the darker area of the forest he tip-toed, about 10 meters and then stood up straight and whispered loudly so as not to interrupt the song playing around us, pointing with his real finger, (popsicle having long ago been devoured) “Its him!!”  

The kids did not run. We carefully inched. The “he” was playing a perfect spring melody. It could have been called “Spring Showers-Spring Sun”. The children moved accordingly, like little curious woodland creatures.  Behind a bunch of trees where he could not be seen from our little patch of sun, sat a little man. He was wearing a red shirt but he was a bit taller than three feet high. So he was unfortunately not your standard forest gnome. Sitting on a little stool, surrounded by fallen logs and even a flowering bush, a little ol' gran' pa was playing his heart out on a mini-saxophone. His eyes were shut. He had not yet heard us or sensed our presence.

I wanted to wait 'til he was finished to move in closer but the little creatures had instincts of their own.  Quietly and respectfully they edged closer and closer to him until many of them stood just before him. He opened his eyes, took the instrument from his lips and smile warmly. We all clapped and praised, “Bravo!” 

 He motioned us nearer and in two seconds we surrounded him.   The 86 year old explained that he liked to play a half an hour everyday in the forest when the weather was nice. He answered questions posed by the children about his instrument and practicing regiment. He asked the children about the instruments they played. And in the end as a thank you, the class performed their newly learned song about “Walking thorough the forest”.

 The refrain is:   

Walking through the forest and I don’t care

Walking through the forest and I don’t care

Walking through the forest and I don’t caaaaaare, if I ever go home again.” 

But since class is actually only 45 minutes long, it was time to care and get going. We thanked each other, exchanged applause and he provided a nice Kinder-fröhliches-Lied as sound track for our little trek back. This song brought out the skip and canter in us and we made it on perfect time back to the school!!    

One of the mothers is a friend of mine and not wanting to hog all the explanation when she came to pick up her daughter, I said “Lisa why don’t you tell your mom what we did in the forest today.”   

She made very big eyes and said, “Mom! We met an old man with only two fingers!!”   

Hadn’t noticed that myself. But when we got back now I realized it’s all the little creatures could talk about. Kids! Her mother looked at me, questioningly.  

“Ohhh, we had ice cream” I said. It was 4:15 and I had to run, not enough time to be explaining fairy tales come true. 

“Great!!” She oozed. “It’s a perfect ice cream day!”  And it was.   

 photo found on wwww.flickr.com

by proffesional photographer: Balakov/Mike Stimpson