Play is a universal language. It gives a sense of joy in being alive. It is one of the healthiest things we have in our culture. When we play, we give a gift of joy to another. ~Louise Hart
Have you ever splashed through a creek in the middle of summer? Not worrying about getting wet. Not even thinking about tripping on a rock and falling in the creek. Not worried about crawdads biting your toe. Just having fun.
That’s the kind of fun – well, close to it, anyway – I hope you had playing my Mystery Photo Game this time. Five mystery photos. 135 ideas of what the mystery of those photos was. Several of you tuned in for every photo and made some fantastic guesses. Some very imaginative guesses. More wrong ideas than right ideas as it turns out. Of course, that had me smiling since I do like to find mystery photos to make you think and imagine.
Mystery photo #5 got most of you thinking chocolate. Or mud. Hmm. Chocolate pretty much ruled this game as I think somebody among you saw chocolate nearly every mystery picture. I should have had a chocolate prize.
I have to admit that Godzilla for mystery photo #3 made me smile. That was the cicada picture. Maybe the one that got your imaginations whirring best though was mystery picture #2. That one brought in everything from a sliced tomato to an armadillo perched on something in the house. Or an aardvark. Or a deer. The muddy hands guess on photo #4 was fun too. Or Smores or a flower floating in the creek.
And so we come to Mystery Photo #5 to finish out our game. I have to be honest. I thought more of you would get this one, but you had chocolate on your mind. At least, some of you did. Melting chocolate, chocolate pudding, chocolate ice cream, chocolate frosting, chocolate cookies, chocolate everything. Megan broke from the rest of you to say a cracked leather seat. She wasn’t right either.
The raindrops or water rivulets in a muddy path were fun guesses. I never thought that chocolate and mud looked so much alike, but then I have made a cake called Mississippi Mud.
However, three of you did get it. I’m counting Lee in as right even though she didn’t trust her eyes and said that couldn’t be Lincoln. So she added a guess of something else. Lisa B and Amy B wasted no time with frilly words or explanations. They just said penny and they were right. A penny it is. 
Pennies are on the way out. Soon we will have to say a nickel or dime for your thoughts. Everything goes up, I guess, even those penny thoughts.
The government is going to stop making pennies next year. You will be able to cash them in, or maybe we will all horde them thinking they will become rare even though there are few zillion of them out there where we’ve pitched them in those cups and jars on our dressers. Well, actually 114 billion pennies instead of zillions, but still enough that rarity of the Lincoln penny won’t happen for a while. I did see something about planting a penny with your tomatoes. Supposed to help somehow, but don’t ask me how.
I have fond memories of pennies. You used to be able to buy a sucker or a piece of bubblegum for a penny and only needed five of them for a candy bar.
I broke my piggy bank and counted out a few dollars in pennies to add to the rest of my savings to buy my first typewriter from my older sister’s friend. Don’t think she was expecting payment in copper coins. Back then, the pennies probably still had some copper in them.
And now I can have fond memories of tricking most of you with a penny mystery photo. And yes, Lee, that is Lincoln’s ear.
Live and work but do not forget to play, to have fun in life and really enjoy it. ~Eileen Caddy
And so, the fun of the Mystery Photo Game is over for now although I’ll have another one someday – if I can find some more mysterious pictures. And we’ll do some other fun things in the next few months. I’ll have more giveaways too. Love giving away books.
Oh yeah, I’m supposed to be announcing a couple of winners. So, drum roll please. The winners are Laura L. and Lee.
So, watch for an email from me, Laura and Lee. I’ll be in touch via email to find out which book you want.
Thanks again to all of you who exercised your imagination with me and made this round of mystery photos so much fun. At least I had fun.
Did you have fun? Which mystery picture surprised you the most?
Comments 10
It was a lot of fun!! It’s sad to see the penny go. I may have to keep one just for the sake of keeping one!
Author
I’m sure most of us will keep several pennies. And why not? They might bring us luck or at least memories. But now when people see a penny somewhere after someone they love died, it might be a true penny from heaven. I got one of those after my mom died and wrote a post about it. It had an explanation, but I liked thinking it was a penny from heaven and mom telling me she was doing fine. Here’s the link if you want to read about my found penny. https://www.annhgabhart.com/2014/07/24/a-penny-from-heaven/
Yay! I finally got and answer right!!!
Congratulations to the winners! This was a fun game!
Author
You did, Lisa. I was surprised more didn’t. Funny how when you know what it is, the picture comes through plain as day. But when you don’t know what it is, your mind can conjure up different sights.
I can totally see that it is a penny now and can’t believe I missed it! I think this last one was the most surprising because of that. Thanks for another fun game and can’t wait till the next one! 🙂
Author
Thanks for playing, Hope, and yes, the penny is sort of plain once you know what it is. In fact, I thought it would be so easy to guess that I wasn’t going to use it until my daughter didn’t know what it was. So, then I thought why not give it a try.
We’ll have fun with another one someday.
It was lots of fun. And exciting to be picked as a winner. They all really surprised me except for the penny. I guess the birthday cake surprised me the most. These mystery photos are so much fun. Thanks, Ann for doing them.
Author
I’m glad you were one of my winners, Lee. Of course, I always want everybody to win. If only I had a lot of free books and postage wasn’t so high. I actually thought the birthday candles on the cake would be the hardest and planned to save it for last until my granddaughter looked at it and knew what it was right away. Maybe she’s just seen a lot of birthday candles being blown out since she has two sisters and a brother to have birthday parties besides her. But the guesses on that were much fun.
That was fun, even though I didn’t get any of them right! 😬. I’m going to miss the lowly penny and will probably be one of those holding on to a few. I have a “penny story”. Back in 1940, when my parents got married, they saved up their pennies to pay the preacher, giving him $10 worth. My daddy was a pastor, himself, and later told this story from the pulpit. Big mistake! The next time he performed a wedding, they paid him in all pennies! I don’t think he ever told that story again!
Author
Glad you still thought it was fun, Judi. I love the story about your dad and the pennies. I’m sure that couple laughed about that for years. That was a lot of pennies. LOL