Grateful Letterbox: Singing for The Merry Pranksters

*** NOVEMBER 23, 2010: 4 boxes are missing, so this series is temporarily unavailable; I'm in the process of recarving & will re-launch when ready***

This box is dedicated to our good friends, The Merry Pranksters, who we met through letterboxing. If you would like to join our LB group called The Grateful Letterboxers, check it out (everyone welcome!): Grateful Letterboxers

***Be sure to print out the map we made of the trails and the route you will take for this hike*** Singing for Pranksters MAP
***Be sure to print out, but keep hidden unless needed, the "cheat sheet" for these clues*** Singing for Pranksters CHEAT SHEET

***Bring your own markers, there is no ink provided. The only logbook is in Box 6, the other boxes are small or micro***

I’m gonna sing you a hundred verses in ragtime,
I know this song it ain’t never gonna end.
I’m gonna march you up and down along the county line,
Take you to the leader of a band.

Box #1: (Are you) On the bus
Box #2: Steal your face
Box #3: Ain’t no time to hate **3/22/09: missing**
Box #4: Sunshine, daydreams
Box #5: The leader of the band **3/22/09: missing**
Box #6: The Music Never Stopped (**This is the only box with a logbook***)
Box #7: Nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile (Leap from ledges)

Location: Chauncy Lake and Mass Wildlife property
Hike length: approximately 4.5 miles
Terrain: easy to moderate
Time to complete: It took me about 2 hours to walk it at a leisurely adult pace, but you’ll need to add lots of stamp-in time (7 stamps) and clue deciphering. Count on at least 3 hours. Also, we encourage you to plan to spend extra time here to enjoy yourselves.

PLEASE be prepared for: hunters (except on Sundays), thorns/prickers, ticks, mosquitoes, poison ivy, mud, and something a bit eerie.

NOTE: It took The Merry Pranksters longer due to circumstances both
in and out of their control!

To enhance the intrigue, take a flashlight along (yes, even in daylight). The enhance your enjoyment of the property, bring seasonal things like: bathing suit/towel/small-craft boat OR ice skates/snow shoes/cross-country skis. You get the idea.

Although not absolutely essential, we encourage you to download and print the map that Daddy Zess put together of this property. The route you will take is highlighted on the map, and may be useful since the clues are somewhat cryptic.

We are using the following symbols to aid in clue deciphering:

→ This symbol before a line of text means that you are at a trail intersection, and the clue is telling you which way to go

**this symbol before a line of text means that it is highlighting a feature you will see along the trail, so you can have confirmation you are going the correct way. See it, and continue on.

!! This symbol before a line of text means that you are in the immediate vicinity of the box, and you should have your LB-spotting eyes on.


DIRECTIONS FROM 495
495 to Route 9 West
At corner with Burger King & Blockbuster & gas stations, turn RIGHT onto Lyman Road.
Take first left, at the lake, onto Chauncy Street
Pass the lake.
Stop at stop sign.
Stay to RIGHT.
Pass white fence (comes up very quickly)
Turn right just after this, onto drive with yellow posts.

Start at Wildlife Management kiosk, which is just past the gate on the paved road. IMPORTANT NOTE: As of 5/4/08, the "kiosk" is no longer there, although the post that held up the sign is still present--start there.

1. (Are You) On the Bus

“The bus came by and I got on, that's when it all began”
!! When PUSH Comes To Shove
!! That same night, Be on YOUR WAY
!! Trouble BEHIND
!! Operator said that's privileged INFORMATION
!! I had a run-in, run around and run down, run around a corner, RUN SMACK INTO A TREE
!! FROM THE NORTHWEST CORNER, of a brand-new crescent moon”
!! LOOK at Julie down below…way DOWN in the SOUTH of France
!!! There's a HOLE in the sky where the light pours in

2. Steal Your Face

→I can tell by the way you smile he's rolling BACK.
→It's not because you missed out on the thing we had TO START.

→Great NORTH special, were you ON board?
→There is a ROAD, no simple highway

→It was later than I thought, when I FIRST believed you.
→Perhaps, they’re better, LEFT unsung.

→Morning comes, she FOLLOWS THE PATH TO THE RIVER SHORE
→Come on Daddy, to an inside STRAIGHT.

→CRUISE THRU a stop SIGN
→ Flight OF the seabirds, scattered like LOST WORDS (**update 10/18/07--I'm told the words are no longer lost**)

** LONG IS THE ROAD WE MUST TRAVEL ON DOWN

** Never look AROUND THE BEND

** String barbed wire at your feet and do not let you PASS
** I met an OLD mistake
**from rocking of the BOAT
** If your fears should START to get inside you

→Mama, Mama many worlds I’ve come since I first LEFT home.

!! THIRTY two teeth in a jawbone
!! That path is for, your STEPS alone.

!! I had to move, really had to MOVE
!! And I knew without askin' she was INTO the blues
!! I can see golden FORESTs in the sun
!! You know the ONe thing we need is a LEFT-hand monkey wrench.

!! Wake up to FIND out that you are the eyes of the World
!! HISTORY’S page will be neatly carved in stone
!! Catch-colt draws a coffin CART
!! You're gonna want a bed to lay your head and a little symPATHy

!!Rising UP to paradise, I know I’m gonna shine.
!!got it from the TOP, it's nothing you can STOP

!!Julie catch a RABBIT by his hair.
!!Steal your FACE right off your head
!! Looked in the BOTTOM and what did I see?
!!Don't shake the TREE when the fruit ain't ripe

!!Scramble BACK TO cover.
!!And it's FACE to face and it's hand to hand

!! When the moon SPLIT s the southwest horizon
!!FIRE on the mountain.
!!Grass shack nailed to a pine WOOD floor
!!Couldn't find any better ones in the morning at THREE
!! Half-STEP Mississippi uptown toodeloo
!! Trouble AHEAD

3. Ain’t No Time To Hate

To lay me DOWN
HISTORY’S page will be neatly carved in stone
Catch-colt draws a coffin CART
You're gonna want a bed to lay your head and a little symPATHy


→ Standing on the moon with nothing LEFT to do
Hang it UP AND see what tomorrow brings
Creepy alligator coming all AROUND THE BEND

(If you wish, now is the time to explore with your flashlight, on the left, just for fun)

→HITS RIVER JUNCTION
→I ain’t often RIGHT but I’ve never been wrong

→ till things we've (never) seen will seem FAMILIAR
→SIGN the Mona Lisa, With a spraycan, call it art
→I knew RIGHT away she was not like other girls

** Hang it UP and see what tomorrow brings

→There’s nothing LEFT to do but count the years
→ Seasons round, creatures great and SMALL
→ I was TRAILed by twenty hounds

→You’d get RIGHT to work, if you had any sense

**Flowers to color in the fields around

!! Sweet blossom come on UNDER the willow
!! Goes to show you don't EVER know
!! Money GREEN, or proletarian gray
!! She's a neon-light diamond and she can live ON the street.
!! It may have one good ring LEFT, you can't tell
!! Catch a few winks down UNDER the bed
!! ROCK and roll wailing in the old caboose

4. Sunshine, Daydream

And if you go no one may FOLLOW, that PATH is for your steps alone
One long party from front TO END

→ If all you got to live for is what you LEFT behind

Never look AROUND THE BEND
LONG IS THE ROAD WE MUST TRAVEL ON DOWN
Singing black goes south and white comes NORTH

**No BIG hurry, what do you say?
**When the moon SPLITs the southwest horizon
**I been chippin' them ROCKs from dawn till doom
** I'm gonna beat it ON down the line
** LEFT my home in Norfolk Virginia
** I’d been there BEFORE, been there before
** Goin' where the WATER tastes like wine

→ I don't trust to nothing, but I know it come out RIGHT

** and all that could not sink or swim, was just LEFT there to float
** I dropped FOUR flights and cracked my spine
** Do everything that's in you, That you feel to be your PART
** Cerise was dressing as Pirouette in WHITE
** Don't shake the TREE when the fruit ain't ripe

!! Went BACK home with two black eyes
!! I went down TO the mountain, I was drinking some wine
!! The FRUIT of Abraham

!! BLUEs for Allah
!! She had RIBBONs, ribbons, ribbons
!! and know the truth will still lie SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN


5. The Leader of the Band

→ Sittin' plush with a royal flush, Aces BACK TO back

**No BIG hurry, what do you say?
**When the moon SPLITs the southwest horizon
**I been chippin' them ROCKs from dawn till doom
**Y'know the pay was PATHetic, It's a shame those boys couldn't be more copasetic

→ Who'll GO RIGHT through the book and break each and every law


→ Hey hey, hey, come RIGHT away, come and join the party every day.
→ One good ride from start to end I'd like to take that ride AGAIN
→ If I had the world TO give, I'd give it to you, long as you live
→ Wildflower seed on the SAND and stone, may the four winds blow you safely home
→ Well in sPITe of all you gained You still have to stand out in the pouring rain

** You can look around about the wide world OVER, you'll never find another honest man
** Great North Special, were you on BOARD? You can't find a ride like that no more.
** Clank your chains and count your change, try to WALK the line

→ Once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it RIGHT

→Check my pulse, it don't change, STAY seventy two, come shine or rain
→ Law come to get you if you don't walk RIGHT
(**We will leave this place an empty STONE
(**There's a HOLE in the sky where the light pours in
(**'Cause it's all too clear we're ON our own
(**No one LEFT to place or take the blame )

→ Second ONE is prison, baby, the sheriff's on my trail
→ I'm gonna to sing you a HUNDRED verses in ragtime,
→ I ran into the Devil, babe, He loaned me TWENTY bills
→ twenty DEGREE of solitude
→ (I see all of SOUTHEAST Asia)

** Catch a few winks down UNDER the bed
** Bird on a PHONE LINE, soakin' up sun

→ Wish I was a headlight, on a NORTH bound train
→ The deltas and the EAST and the freeze
→ (Little bit quicker and we might have time to say 'how do you do?" before we're LEFT behind)

→ It's all RIGHT, 'cause I love you, and that's not gonna change
→ Can't get AROUND and I can't run away, I need a miracle every day
→ A breeze in the PINES in the summer night moonlight

→ Look into any eyes you find by you, you can see clear through to ANOTHER day
→ Give me the RIGHT area code

→ Ran INTO a rainstorm, I ducked back into a bar door
→ TUMBLE DOWN SHACK in Bigfoot County

!! When the moon splits the SOUTHWEST horizon
!! On, from the northwest CORNER, of a brand new crescent moon,
!! UNDER eternity
!! There's a METAL flag beside me someone planted long ago

5. The Music Never Stopped

KEEP ON ROLLING, my old buddy
Before you let my deal go DOWN
There's a lesson or two I've learned, by standing in the ROAD alone

→ Wherever we go, I'll be RIGHT here near you
→ When life looks like Easy Street, there is danger AT your door
→ Sing a lullaby beside the WATER

**Anyone who sings a tune so sweet is PASSING BY
**“STEAL YOUR FACE”
**Contact the union, put the beggars to ROUTE

Casey Jones you better WATCH your speed
You're back in Terrapin FOR good or ill again
RISING up to paradise, I know I'm gonna shine
The grass ain't greener, the wine ain't sweeter, either side of the HILL.
And when that train rolls in you don't know WHERE it's been
A lovely VIEW OF heaven but I'd rather be with you
Just a box of rain, wind and WATER
But NOW it beats down on the asphalt land
The obvious was HIDDEN

(** till things we've (never) seen will seem FAMILIAR
(**SIGN the Mona Lisa, With a spraycan, call it art
(**Well please don't be surprised when you find me dreaming TOO
(**It's a FAR gone lullaby, sung many years ago)

You must be the angel I thought I'd never FIND.
Since I'm, passing YOUR WAY today
Right now while the sun shines ON THE CREST OF THE HILL
Ain't no time TO hate,
There ain't no POINT in looking behind us, no
MOST of the cats you meet on the street speak of True Love
To be with you with our bodies CLOSE together
Barely time TO wait
WATER bright as the sky from which it came

What we will be doing, and what we're gonna FIND
Put it all on PLASTIC and I wonder where we'll be when the bills hit.
Come grow this scorched GROUND green,
Every time that wheel turn round bound to COVER just a little more ground

Crown yourself the king of clowns, or STAND way back apart
Make myself a bed BY the waterside
No BIG hurry, what do you say? Might as well travel the elegant way
Some folks up in TREEtops, Just look to see the sights
I'll meet you AT the jubilee
Three piece band on the CORNER played 'nearer my God to thee'

Full of hope, full of grace, is the human FACE
Great NORTH Special been on my mind

→ Nothing's for certain it could always GO wrong
→ Kid can't read at SEVENTEEN, The words he knows are all obscene
→ Lose your STEP, fall out of grace

! Ah, child of countless TREEs.
! The course of love must follow blind, WITHOUT a look behind
! Just ONE thing and I'll be OK, I need a miracle every day
! Would you let it fall, or hold it in your ARMs?

Like a tiger IN a trance,
Wave that flag, wave it wide and HIGH
HOLEs in what's left of my reason,

7. Nothing left to do but SMILE, SMILE, SMILE (Leap from Ledges)

In hopes he will RETURN, but he cannot be bought or sold
Way down, down along Lazy River ROAD
If you don't just PASS it on.
SIGN the Mona Lisa With a spraycan, call it art

It LEFT a smoking crater of my mind,
Built to last while years roll PAST like cloudscapes in the sky
Asked him for WATER he poured me some wine

Or FENCE you in the lines I might have drawn
Been chippin' UP rocks for the great highway
Spent a little time on the mountain, Spent a little time on the HILL

The WALL collapsed on Wednesday
Chop it down and you can't STOP me
Back home, SIT down and patch my bones,
It was later than I thought when I FIRST believed you,
Let him cast a STONE at me
Steal your FACE right off your head
Ripple in still WATER, When there is no pebble tossed,
Never could REACH, It just slips away but I try
Is it All Go UNDER? Is it All Fall Down?
It's even worse than it appears but it's all RIGHT
I set out running but I TAKE my time
Listen to the river sing sweet songs to ROCK my soul
Nothin' left to do but SMILE, SMILE, SMILE!!!!

The end game

The boxes are all found (hopefully) so you will travel along the path as it meets up again with the road.
Stay straight, but stay alert. At a clearing to the left, where your view of the water is opened, you will find the enticement that calls to a certain kind of person. Is this your game? Do you dare to leap where the angels fear to tread? OOPS, THE ENTICEMENT HAS BEEN CUT DOWN! :0(
After playing, or not playing, continue on the road (or lower path). If on the road, don’t miss the path down to the left at 150 degrees (southeast) that will take you to the parking lot.