August 22, 2013 (Thursday)
Growing up in the 1930’s made me a member of a generation of children who found happiness in the neighborhood yards. We discovered new life everywhere we looked in the form of bugs, small animals, butterflies, etc.
Lots of bugs got our attention. There was the “doodlebug,” which was only about 1/2 inch long, but whenver you would get near it, it would curl up into a ball. The worms were in the trees, and some of them in the ground. Spiders abounded, and of course the wasps and bees were safe from our explorations, most of the time.
After a rain, the mounds of mud began to appear and kids went after their builders, the “crawfish” (or, “crawdad,” as many named them, or “crayfish,” as the books say). Generally there were many to be fround, and a lot of kids collected them by the jarfulls. I don’t remember anyone eating them.
And then there were the snakes. Usually the ones that got our attention were the “garter” snakes or “grass” snakes. They were harmless to humans, but, sad to say, humans were not harmless to them. Few made it back into the wild after being handled by brave young men.
I loved hanging around the ditch in front of the house, because the spaces above the ditches were filled with “dragon flies,” darting at great speed, cleaning the air of those pesky mosquitoes. Quite a sight, seeing those big super-fast winged pest controllers in flight.
The beautiful butterflies filled the air, alighted on fences, tree branches, flowered bushes, and, sometimes, if one was patient and careful, on the hand. What a magnificent moment for a child.
Perhaps the most exciting bugs were the “fireflies,” or, as we called them, “lightning bugs.” A mystery in flight, some evenings there were so many they could not be counted. They, too, were at the mercy of the childhood explorers, who gathered them one by one into big jars that became lanterns for the children.
The days would come every so often when our dogs gave birth to puppies and our cats to kittens, and those were very special occasions. Educational and exciting, emphasizing a world of wonder.
Without TV, iphones, smart phones, or video games, the kids back then had loads of fun. It was all free. And it was all real.