On a recent sweltering evening about the time our Bee Balm was just about ready for its annual blaze red fireworks display, Wayne pointed out that the front garden was full of twinkle lights. Upon seeing the merry display, I was transported to a simpler time when we used to run barefoot out the screen door with glass mayonnaise jars at the ready. If you were to ask me today what my favorite sounds of summer are; the slamming of screen doors would rate right up there with children racing around under the moon and that particular baseball announcer's voice wafting out into the yard on a cooling breeze. I caught myself rising from my recliner just in time to remember that I was 56 years old and already in my jammies.
I will take pause here as I know that many of my readers don't exactly know the value of owning a glass mayonnaise jar come summer vacation. We were a family of seven, and while the adults were never in line to claim a jar, It could take a long way into the summer before kid number 4 came into an empty jar. The first order of business was to wash out the inside then soak and scrub off the paper label. The lids were metal back then, so we needed to borrow a hammer and nail from the workbench to punch holes into it. That, and a fair amount of bravery was all that was needed to become a summer scientist.
If you filled the jar three quarters of the way with sand or dirt you could start an ant farm or try to raise fishing worms; but more often than not, we were after bigger prizes like grasshoppers, polliwogs, minnows, butterflies, lightning bugs and the blue ribbon of all insects - bees!
Bees are tricky because you must hold your breath while positioning the lid on one side of the flower and the jar on the other. There was none of this using your bare hands or nets when it came to bees. Once lined up, the trick was to snap lid to jar while quickly sliding flower, bee and all off from the branch or stem so that the lid could be screwed down tight. My sister Claire once dropped her jar and received a nasty gash and stitches on the top of her foot. Catching bees was serious business and those with experience could catch multiple bees in the same jar without being stung or having a single one escape.
Frogs, toads, minnows, garter snakes, turtles...are all fair game for kids with time on their hands; but perhaps I think it is curiosity mingled with adventure and sprinkled with the slightest inkling of fear that draws them outside on hot summer days. Do you remember learning about the life cycle of a frog even before it was taught in school? Do you remember howling like a wolf at a full moon? We dug bear traps and covered the holes with sticks. We never caught a bear but we sure did catch a lot of Poison Ivy. How many of you laid belly down on a hot dock scooping up minnows with plastic buckets? Did you tenderly pick up a butterfly with a broken wing and carefully place it on a flower? How many rocks did you flip trying to find Rolly Pollies and worms? Our son's uncle Charlie once handed him a snake which then bit him multiple times...I can still remember his grin as the blood ran down his stomach.
Summer days and kids in towns just like Vernon, are the makings of real lifelong scientists; mayonnaise jars and YouTube not required. - Norma Manning
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| Frog at the Vernon Fish Hatchery |
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| Tadpoles at the Vernon Fish Hatchery |
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| Tadpole with hind legs |
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| Be on Cone flower |
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| Baby Snapping Turtle |
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| Toad |
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