Do you remember screened porches?
Not many houses have them nowdays--except maybe in Florida, but they don't just screen porches, they screen porches, pools and back yards. Mosquito season is virtually all year round, so to enjoy the weather, you gotta do what you gotta do.
I was six when we lived in Nowhere, Oklahoma, and one summer day I remember my sister C (3 yrs older than me) come running home. She'd been playing at the creek. A couple of boys had came up and started frog gigging. For those of you city folks who don't know what frog giggin' is it's basically a sharp pointy stick you use to stab the frogs.
I still won't try frog legs.
So my bros, sis and I went to the creek to 'rescue' the frogs. I guess that's why I like frogs and toads. I'll still catch 'em and then make my kiddo scream--she's such a wuss. :-) Anyhoo, we rescued the frogs and we didn't have any place to put them, so we locked them on the front screen porch.
Anyhoo, after dark, about nine o'clock, guess what happened?
Anyone?
Hm, well, frogs sing after dark. Or you could call it croakin', warblin', or caterwauling. It WAS LOUD! Of course, Mom made my bros set the frogs free.
But it's still a memory that I fondly recall. Maybe I'll use something like that in my MG stories. You'll never know.
Write on!
My Grandma Reeves had a screened porch on one of the houses she lived in.
ReplyDeleteWe were on it one summer evening when I saw a weird bug with a piece of grass in it's mouth. The tail curved to the side and when I touched it, it didn't move.
Finally I said, "Hey, Grandma. What kinda bug is this?"
Grandma lowered her paper to take a look, then jumped out of her chair, grabbed me and pulled me back. "It's a scorpion. Did he sting you?"
She decided he must be really sick with his tail to the side like that and the grass in his mouth. We felt real sorry for him . . . just before we squished him.
LOL!! Susan--what a GREAT memory! So glad I swallowed my coffee before I read the 'we squished him' part. :-) Your grandma sounds like she was a treasure!
ReplyDeleteHAHAHAHA Susan.
ReplyDeleteI want a screened room on the back of my house. I love them. There are many evenings I could sit outside and enjoy the weather and view if not for the mosquitoes sucking pints of blood from my arms and legs.
Here is Florida, we have some friends who a the neatest screened room on the back of their house. They leave the sliding doors open a lot. Of course, just outside the screened room is their pool. It is a lovely setting.
Eat more garlic, Cyndi. I've heard it repels 'squiters . . . it also repels humans, too, so you have to take the good with the bad! :-)
ReplyDeleteWe had a back screen porch when I was young. We didn't have air conditioning, and my mother put 2 cots in there. Sometimes I'd sleep in the cot on hot nights. Good memories!
ReplyDeleteI think technology has taken something from us--unique memories.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing, Edie! With the advent of central air, TV, and other stuff, who wants to go outside in the summer? No one. Why would you? But I think we miss out on stuff, too.
I don't have any memories like that, but when I was little, we always went to the lake. Of course, we didn't have tents or anything and I slept outside. If I was lucky, I got to sleep on a foldout chair(you know the kind I mean, where the plastic strips made your legs look like a candy cane)...when not so lucky, I slept in the sand. But the view of the stars was amazing. That's what I like remembering.
ReplyDeleteWow, Ash! I never thought about stars at the lake--probably because I don't go to the lake--fish poo and all that, yanno. I do remember once when we went skiing at Breckenridge and our condo was about 6 miles away from town--WOW! I NEVER knew there were so many stars in the sky. I felt like I could reach out and touch them. It was sooo kewl!!
ReplyDeleteWe went to the lake a lot, too. One time, when I was about ten, we were camping at a lake somewhere in central Oklahoma, and my dad woke me up around dawn to watch a buck with a huge rack swim across the inlet where we were. It was pretty amazing.
ReplyDeleteThanks for making me think about it!
Wow, HOW cool is that, Marilyn?? Thanks for sharing. I'm glad I jogged some memories today! :-)
ReplyDelete