“How sweet I roamed from field to field, and tasted all the summer’s pride.”
Today is cloudy and damp and dark. The sky is whitish gray. It’s a drab day.
When I was a kid, everything was a toy. A flat rock was skimmed across the surface of the pond in a contest of sorts. Four was usually the winner. Big rocks were balancing boards, and we’d stand with our feet spaced and our arms straight out as we tilted faster and faster. Jumping from one huge rock to the other was a game at the beach leading to the end of the jetty where the ocean crashed.
Sticks came in all useful shapes and sizes. Some were swords, and we’d be Robin Hood and the Sheriff or any good guy and bad guy. We’d make swords sounds when the blades crashed against each other. A broken sword was total defeat. Other times, sticks were bats hitting at rocks while one of us called balls and strikes. Another stick was good at the swamp for dragging stuff out of the water. It had to be short, thick and strong. The one to use walking in the woods had to be tall and straight.
Bugs were the best fun. Catching grasshoppers from the field below my house was where I’d spend many summer hours. It was a wild field and only got rain water so its tall grass turned brown early, by mid-summer. The grass was alive with grasshoppers. I’d run, scaring them to jump, cup my hands and try to catch one in the air. When I did, I’d hold it in my hands and peek through to watch. Later, I’d let it go. Grasshoppers always left suspicious brown spots on my hands. Fireflies were a summer wonder. Their lights blinked all across the field. I’d use a jar with air holes poked in the top and trap one then I’d watch it through the sides of the jar as it miraculously lit a small piece of the darkness. I’d keep it only a while then I’d let my firefly go. I’d follow it with my eyes until I’d lost it in the field of fireflies.
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May 14, 2010 at 10:40 am
Grey, damp but fairly warm here today and just now the sun almost shines through the clouds. Not a bad day to be honest.
Those poor animals we tried to catch 🙂 I wonder how their little hearts managed to continue because it must have been an awful chock to be cought. Normally they would have been eaten when being catched.
Grasshoppers was fun to catch, but even more were dragon flies. The few times I managed that I felt I was a big and great hunter 🙂 🙂 🙂
But in early summer when we had very few dragon flies we used to catch salamander nymphs from a big pond in a park nearby where I grew up. I liked to take them home with me to look at them in an empty aquarium I had. They were allowed to return to the pond when they had becom fully grown salamanders though.
Have a great day now!
Christer.
May 14, 2010 at 10:49 pm
Christer,
The sun came out this afternoon, and the day got warm.
I always figured the grasshoppers were mad- they were the quickest to get away, the hardest to catch. I don’t think I ever caught dragon flies.
We didn’t have salamander nymphs but we had pollywogs. We used to go to the swamp and watch as they changed into frogs.
May 14, 2010 at 12:44 pm
Kat, when was the last time you saw grasshoppers and/or fireflies in your yard? I remember them vividly from childhood. Now, I rarely see them and am thrilled when I do. Maybe it’s because I’m now suburban in a larger city than my childhood city, but I wonder. The praying manti (my favorite insect) seem to be hanging in. Perhaps they are indiscriminate insectivores, happily feeding on insects imported as well as domestic.
May 14, 2010 at 10:53 pm
Michele,
I am lucky enough to have fireflies in my back yard where it is still mostly trees and overgrown grass. The fireflies come in July, and I am always so excited to see my first one of the season. I stand out on the deck and watch them for a long tome.
It was a long while back when I saw my last grasshopper, but I bet they’re still hiding in the grass, the tall brown grass.
May 14, 2010 at 3:39 pm
When I used to mow the lawn myself, I would see the grasshopper instars (?) hopping out of the way of the mower. They were very small. I would feel badly for them and slow down so they would have time to hop away. But I really detested mowing the lawn and after a while I would resent the little buggers for making me mow slowly. I’d speed up again and then think well, now I’m killing them consciously and that’s worse than killing them unconsciously. Isn’t it? This existential dilemma caused me to give up mowing altogether. I pay someone to mow it for me now so I suppose that makes me a contract killer.
May 14, 2010 at 10:58 pm
Caryn,
I know my lawn had none so I never had to deal with the guilt of insecticide, but if I had them, I would have chosen expediency as you did. I hated mowing the lawn and the faster the better, bugs be damned@!
May 14, 2010 at 5:41 pm
Fireflies were my favorties Kat. I kept them in jars and watched them all evening then let them go and followed them into the woods. It was so much fun growing up with all the bugs you wrote about. I hated mosquitoes but we were crazy to let them land then smash them to show the blood on our arm. Imagine kids laughing at that! Bees and Wasps were on the “Don’t Touch” list. Good post today, I really enjoyed it.
May 14, 2010 at 11:00 pm
Z&Me,
Fireflies are still my favorites. Once in a while I see one on a branch close to me, and I get to see its tail blink. I find it remarkable and amazing.
We never cared much about the blood either. That was usually the only way to catch him on your arm: when they had already started biting.
I’m glad you enjoyed today’s musings.