Catching Fireflies

Spending the night in a tent in the yard, watching meteor showers, snow cones/ice cream, climbing trees, swinging on a tire swing....

Last evening we were in the pool and my youngest forgot the term "firefly" or "lightning bug" and she said 'Look! I see one of those flies with his butt lit up!"

We just started catching "bugs lightning" in the past few weeks. My 3 year old -where the name is from :) - is terrified of them, but my almost 6 year old is loving it.

My kids go to swim lessons in my old home town, as my parents still live there. Of course the pool has changed, but it is and always has been nice.

I have fond memories of catching fireflies, too. We haven't got to do that with DS yet, as he's pretty much done with being awake by 7:30 and it they don't come out until later, but the next time he's up late we will definitely go lightening bug hunting (is it a regional thing to call them that?).

Heh. You have me remembering swimming in the lake with my cousins and how we would need to dive under the water and hold our breath to try to wait out the enormous horseflies that were trying to bite us.

Watching cloud pictures in the sky. Eating popsickles and drinking Kool-ade. Swimming and cherry pie with vanilla ice cream.

Yes to catching fireflies! What fun!

Also, wandering the neighborhood looking for emerging cicadas to watch... (I still do that as an adult in my own yard... fascinating! I caught a wonderful photo series of a cicada emerging several years ago...)....

Playing "Kick the can" with the neighborhood kids.....

walking down to the nearby creek to play in the water..... or riding my bike there....

acorn wars under the pin-oak trees... we would each set up a fort under a tree (2 of them in the front yard), and gather up all the acorns we could find, and then fire away!

Riding my bike to the local swimming pool.... (same park as the nearby creek...)

setting up a lemonade or kool-aid stand in the front yard and selling drinks for 5c.....

Loved to catch lightn bugs! If you were really lucky, a boy would catch one for you, tare off the back and make a ring for you with a piece of grass! Lol! Gross!

My gramps lived near a country store. It was all dark wood with black fans lazily turning in the back over the picnic tables. It felt cool in there. Nobody had AC, we rarely wore shoes but if we did they were flip flops. On a good visit, he would give us 10 cents and we would buy an ice cream sandwich for it or two orange push ups. On a great day, you got a quarter, that meant you got candy from the penny candy and maybe a balloon, too.

Friday Fright Night movie on TV while the grown ups were playing cards. My first memory was The Birds. Very scary, then, bazaar now!

Massive 80 lb watermelons. Stepping on bees and my foot swelling twice it's size, while putting chewing Tobacco on it. Relatives twisting tobacco after it had been fired.

Swinging on the tire swing till I was sick at my stomach.
New clothes from sears just before school, arriving in the mailbox.

I could go on...

When I was a child, we'd visit my grandma in jersey. My aunt lived next door. In between their houses was a giant field, it would light up like crazy with fireflies.

We played lightning bug tag. It was great fun!

Now I think it's kind of gross, but when I was 7, it was awesome.

Pie. Berry pie. I know it's summer when we start picking berries and making pies. Next week we will be having pie for breakfast! I cannot wait!

We liked to gather up as many as possible and smear them on the driveway. Very cool how they continue to glow.

Practicing the best cartwheel, round off, or splits in the grass. Spinning each other by an ankle and wrist to make an airplane. Blowing dandelions. Riding down a grass hill on a piece of cardboard.

Making an ant farm out of a coke bottle.

Having canon ball contests.

Taping yourself singing along with your favorite song with a cassette tape recorder. Then doing it again for a better one.

We don't have many lightening bugs up here. I only see three or four in a season and have never caught one. I did and still do love catching frogs, garter snakes and crayfish. I love watching the dragonflies. For me summer is camping, swimming at the lake, hiking in the woods and picking wild berries.

We used to do that all the time as kids on Long Island. For the past 15 years or so, we've hardly had any fireflies in Massachusetts. The only place I've seen a lot of them are on Cape Cod in certain locations. It's kind of baffling. I'm sad my kid didn't get to do this.

I have memories of going to my grandparents' and great-grandparents' homes with nearby creeks - we go wading and catch minnows, trying not to break out necks on the slippery river rocks. So much better than sitting in front of a TV or computer screen!

Our son used to "upgrade" from the typical beach bucket with a few fish and snails - he took a large plexiglass cube and created entire habitats with sand, seaweed, shells, and various critters. He always attracted a ton of kids, from age 2 to age 14, who loved participating. Great socialization with new faces, and great appreciation of nature.

When I was a kid, they would send an old-style jeep through the streets spraying for mosquitoes. We'd call it "the smoke machine" and our parents let us run through the spray. Dumb dumb dumb. Visibility was terrible and I'm sure it was awful for our lungs too. But everyone did it then because no one knew the hazards.

The other summer classic - the ice cream truck. Same stupid jingle, same overpriced snacks, but no one cares!

The thrill of playing kick the can in the darkening twilight - either with my cousins at my grandparents' magical place on the Chesapeake Bay or in my neighborhood when the older, 'cool' kids would relent and let me play.

With my kids it is midnight skinny dips in my parents' private pond. Nothing like the slightly creepy, silky dark water against your skin to send a tingle up your spine.

fireflies are way up at the top of my list. they're part of my boys' childhood, not my own, but oh, how i love them! i don't catch 'em any more, not longer than to cup a hand around one and then set it free, but the boys did keep them in a jar in their room overnight.
picking fresh fruit and freezing it. i love opening a bag of frozen strawberries in january and getting that snootful of summer fragrance.
swimming under the stars. with fireflies. absolutely the best.
lying in the sun until my bones melt. i love, love, love the sun. love summer. love everything about it.
:) khairete
S.