As a child, I spent a lot of time camping, fishing and hunting with my family. During the summer we spent nearly every weekend at the lake. We usually camped with aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins.

Starting at age three, all the kids and I had binoculars too. We didn’t have kid versions. My grandfather always got us the real deal along with real pocket knives and fishing tackle.

In the afternoon it got too hot on the lake in a boat. This is when my father, grandfather and uncle would set up lawn chairs and sit with their binoculars. As kids we thought they were watching boats to see who was catching fish or what kind of ducks were swimming in the cove, but what they were really looking at were girls across the cove.

When I became a teenager, I was able to bring friends to the lake with me. We walked off from camp and did what we wanted. We swam by ourselves and found a purpose in the binoculars too.

One weekend when the sun rose high in the sky, the jet skis and wave runners started buzzing back and forth across the cove. Just like my father and uncles, my friend and I set up lawn chairs, pulled out binoculars and started glassing the camps along the opposite bank.

I saw four teenage boys taking turns riding a yellow wave runner. My friend and I spotted them at the same time. Both sets of glasses faced the same direction and scanned the area.

We watched as they frolicked in the shallow water and did stupid tricks off and on the wave runner. Suddenly all four boys turned in our direction and waved.

My friend and I slowly pulled the binoculars from our faces and looked at each other. They had noticed us watching them across the cove.

I assumed they would need binoculars to see us. It was quite a way across the isolated section of water. We raised the binoculars again. They were still standing and facing us. They waved again.

“How do they know?” I asked. This never happened to my father.

That wasn’t the first or last time that happened. No matter what lake we were at or what campground we were staying in, my friends and I were caught every time we tried this. And trust me. We tried this quite often.

I just couldn’t understand it. My father never got caught.

One day I finally commented to family about it. The response I got was, “The girls know. They just choose to ignore it.”

I didn’t believe that reason until the day the roles were reversed.

My friend and I were jumping off the back of the boat into the water and swimming. That’s when we noticed the large lenses focused on us. At first, I thought it was a little embarrassing and tried to ignore it. We discussed what was happening across the water and remembered being told about girls ignoring the peeping.

At the same time, both of us turned and waved. What do you know? They waved back.