The day is beautiful. It is 70° right now with a small breeze from the north, always the chilliest breeze. I shut the window behind me. The dogs haven’t had their morning naps yet. Henry loudly and annoyingly barked at the mailman when he delivered across the street. Nala tried to nap, but Henry’s barking had her intrigued so she got up and checked. I suspect her tacit reaction was how silly Henry is. I agree.

When I was in the second grade, I joined the Brownies. My mother and I took the bus and went to the Jordan Marsh in Malden where we bought my Brownie uniform, my brown tam, a belt and a dark brown coin purse which hung off the belt. On the day I had a troop meeting, I got to wear my Brownie uniform instead of my school uniform. That made being a Brownie special. I remember we started every troop meeting by saying the Girl Scout promise while our right hands made the Girl Scout salute. I remember feeling so proud when I marched in uniform in the town’s Memorial Day parade. I remember the small crowds along the parade route. People clapped and parents yelled their kids names. I would immortalize the event when I told my parents, “Everyone was out of step except me.”

I have never been afraid of bugs. I always thought the girls who screamed were silly. When I was growing up, bugs intrigued me. I’d watch them and wonder. I wondered how fireflies were able to light, how did the most beautiful butterflies came from cocoons and did brown grasshoppers really leave poop on my hand when I held them. Dragonflies were fascinating the way they flitted back and forth across the top of the water in the swamp. We called them sewing needle bugs. We’d scare the little kids by telling them the bugs would sew their lips shut as a punishment for a variety of infractions. That was easy to believe as they did look as if they could.

Sometimes I’ll see a gnat floating in my coffee cup. I’ll just slide it out and toss it. It was in Ghana where I learned not to be disgusted by floating bugs or the weevils in my flour. I’d just pick out the gnats and sift out the flour weevils. We never got all of the weevils out of the flour so we jokingly called the rest protein. In Ghana drinks are delivered with coasters. Being an American, I put them under my glass. Ghanaians put them over the tops of their glasses. I didn’t learn for the longest time that the top loaded coasters kept out the gnats.

Today I m going to vacuum, polish a bit and load more trash into the trunk. I went to the dump the other day and hope to go again. I still have trash bags on the deck. Ignoring them doesn’t work.

This entry was posted on September 11, 2026 at 1:33 pm and is filed under Musings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: brownies, Coasters, Peace Corps