Richfield Riches — July 4, 2025 (FS2)

FlockSitting

INTRODUCTION

The local Flock from down the block
Heard the announcement of
Summertime leisure sans hidden treasure
And decided to spread the love...

"Let's present our own event,
So hunters get their fill—
We'll share the bread," the mallard said,
"And put it all on our bill!"

Flocking together with TC Treasure,
Our Duckie was deployed
In a hidden perch for a substitute search
To fill the treasure hunt void!

So pull up your britches for Richfield Riches;
Head out and hit the bricks—
And get a clue for the red, white, and blue
At Ten, Noon, Two, Four and Six!

FlockSitting

CLUE #1

It's a beautiful day in the U.S. of A.
So neighbors, lend us your ears
And celebrate these United States—
Two-hundred forty-nine years!

Rising with pennants of Independence,
Our determined Duckie swam
And set up a game to honor the name
Of good old Uncle Sam!

FlockSitting

CLUE #2

Making a dash to cause a big splash—
The perfect pad for our Duckie—
Under maintenance? Goodness gracious!
Our little Sam was unlucky...

So without dawdle, off he did waddle,
Bounding a hasty retreat—
A canard, a crusade—for a spot in the shade;
Somewhere to beat the heat!

FlockSitting

CLUE #3

Seizing the day in a roundabout way,
Sam sought the shade of a tree—
And so he did wade along with the parade,
Pursuing the ways of the free!

To find and farm our lucky charm,
Search through City streets;
Keep it local, with frontiers focal—
And knock the mud from your cleats!

FlockSitting

CLUE #4

A portly president—truth self-evident—
Reached for his rubber duck,
When—rub-a-dub-dub—he fell in the tub,
And that's where he got stuck!

But Sam, our Duckie—playful and plucky—
Kept his eye on the ball;
He swung with a QUACK!—flying back, back, back...
Up over the center field wall!

FlockSitting

CLUE #5

It must have been lonely, being the only
Elected-appointed official,
But Big Bill Taft was unique in his craft,
Executive and judicial.

The statesman's park is home to the mark
Of our tiny Uncle Sam;
A diamond encoded with bases loaded—
Knock out a grand slam!

Look for the loot—low-hanging fruit—
In the forest over the fence
To find our lucky rubber Duckie
For fifteen-thousand cents!

Peel your eyes to spot the prize
By the border of the brake—
In limbs of green, midway between
The outfield and the lake!

FlockSitting

CLUE EXPLANATIONS

The INTRODUCTION contains the phrase “put it all on our bill,” which is meant to suggest William Howard Taft—and in turn Taft Park, site of this hunt’s hiding spot. It also includes the phrase “red, white, and blue,” which sets the patriotic theme for this duck hunt.

CLUE #1 further establishes the patriotic/presidential theme of this hunt, and references a park that features a lake—in this case Taft Lake, at Taft Park.

CLUE #2 tracks our hero Sam as he departs the recently opened (and suddenly closed) splash pad at Veterans Park on a “crusade” for “a [hiding] spot in the shade” near the edge of town (“bounding”).

CLUE #3 is jam-packed; it references the “roundabout way” one might take (or encounter en route) to our hiding spot—which is confirmed to be in “the shade of a tree”—and suggests hunters follow the west-to-east direction of this year’s parade, toward the “ways of the free” (or freeways) of 77 and 62—two routes that intersect in a cloverleaf interchange (“our lucky charm”) just northeast of Taft Park; the park can be found where two “local” “City streets”—Richfield Parkway and Bloomington Avenue—become each other, is located on the edge of town (“Keep it local, with frontiers focal”), and contains many sports fields (“knock the mud from your cleats!”), including ballfield #4, near which Sam the Duckie was hidden.

CLUE #4 references William Howard Taft, the “portly president” who was apocryphally rumored to have gotten stuck in a bathtub during his term; he is of course the namesake of Taft Park—where in this clue hunters are told to look “over the center field wall” of one of the park's four baseball/softball fields.

CLUE #5 points hunters to the MacGuffin—hanging from the lower branches of a tree at the edge of the woods, about halfway between Taft Lake and the outfield wall of ballfield #4.