Reminders Of My Childhood

I was born in 1959, back then things were much different than they are now.  The past few nights we have had fireflies in our yard, my husband saw them when he went out to put up chickens and he came and got me to see them for myself.  When I was a kid we use to catch them and put them in jars and keep them by our beds.  It has been a long time since I saw that many fireflies.

We spent a lot of time outside when we were kids, there were no video games or computers, we played at the park, my grandmothers backyard, the neighbors house...and our backyard was were we sometimes set up our zoo.  We would catch things and display them in makeshift cages built out of whatever we could find.  Sometimes it was neighborhood cats, sometimes toads or snakes, sometimes our next door neighbors chicken.  But there were also fireflies and horny toads in abundance back then too.  We had a pet tarantula at one time and a turtle named Speedy.

We would go to our Great Aunts house a lot in the summer and she had a pool, it was hand dug many years before and had thick walls that stood up a couple of feet above the ground and a bath house attached to it with a large screened area with picnic tables.  My Mom would always fix sloppy joes to eat when we went.  There were cow patty fights and rides on the tractor, hide and seek and badmitton games.  We caught many horny toads out there too, and always the fireflies.

I have chairs that were my grandmothers lawn chairs, the heavy clamshell metal chairs, I see them every day.  When my grandmother moved in with my Aunt Pat, there were a number of things that were gotten rid of...I got the chairs with there many layers of paint.  I remember sitting in those chairs many nights and watching the fireflies in my Grandmothers back yard.  Playing with my cousins and eating ice cream.  There was a time that my feet barely hung off of the seat of the chair.  Now my grand daughters can sit in the chairs when they come over.

I would love to have a place that my family will think of fondly when I am gone, a place where memories are made.  I think we have a good place so far, it has a long way to go to be fun enough for kids to enjoy in the summertime.  But maybe we will put up a tire swing or fix up a good camping spot and build a fire pit under the stars.  Maybe we can make a little fishing pier over the pond for the kids to fish off of.  Maybe, when they come to visit they will put video games out of their minds for a little while and enjoy nature like I did when I was a kid.  There were many times I rode my bike and went fishing with just a string a hook and bits of my sandwich for bait off a pier at the lake.

I remember climbing trees and sitting in the deep shade by the creek down at the park, where it was cooler than my house.  I read many a book in a big old oak tree that the branches curved almost down to the ground...I loved the sound of the creek and walking in the water to cool off.

Being in the country and getting to experience nature first hand is great...and so is seeing fireflies again!