Lightenbugs

When we were kids, we did not have such things as trampolines, pools, or heaven forbid cell phones. We spent our summers as a group of kids playing ball on the field, hanging out at the park learning to play four square and hackey sac, and the ever-popular catching lightening bugs in jars. (We also collected salamanders, toads, and more, but that’s a different story).

 

            As soon as the sun headed for that horizon, we were in our mom’s kitchens begging for anything to catch a firefly in. The best were the peanut butter containers with holes cut in them, but as a family of 5 these were always in supply. Especially since my mom refused to keep any jars because “gross. Bugs are disgusting.” She had to make all the holes since the Joe and gouging out a chunk of his hand with the far opener. Plus, mom knew how to make the holes just right. Not too big for them to get out but big enough so they can get air and not die on us.

 

            If you have never spent a summer night, with a jar in one hand as you grasp and leap to get ahold of the bug that butt’s glow, you might want to give it a try now. Trick is to find a nice dark place. We would go down into my backyard and my dad would set up his “lounge chair.” Yu know the ones made out of plastic strips and you had to keep lowering and raising the front part to get a comfortable position. Dad has 2. A green one and a yellow one, but we couldn’t use them. Rightly so since I remember that one of them met their demise by us sticking hands and feet and legs between the plastic strips to see if we could. By the way, you can, but the stripes don’t always come back together so easily. Oops.

 

            Dad would set up his chair right net to the bug zapper. Again if you never had a bug zapper at you house, you were missing out. Bug Zapper draw bugs to them using the “light” and then zap them. Dead. I also can confirm that blades of grass, pine cones and dad’s cigarette (sorry dad) would also zap and make a big noise. Once my dad plugged in the bug zapper the game was on.  Who could get the most light up butt bugs?? The Zapper or us! We would run around crazy. Trying to hold more than one in our hand while trying to get the lid open. There were cries when the catcher squeezed a little too hard. Then excitement when my brothers realized they could “spread” the neon glow on things. My mom quickly outlawed that when I began to cry.

 

            As we caught the bug zapper went off and off. Dad would tell us that it only got mosquitoes that would bite us anyway and make us itch. I wasn’t quite so sad getting them zapped. The best times were when the bug zapper would catch a big one. A night moth or something and it would zap for the longest time as we all screamed whoa. My dad didn’t find happiness in a lot of places, but I think he did there. Sitting in his chair, smoking his cigarette, and listening to the bug zapper. Even as we got older, he would hang up the bug zapper on the front porch and rock in his swing.

 

            All of this came to memory when I saw my brother had hung up a bug zapper. I didn’t get a chance to see if he bought it or if it was one of the originals. I looked at it and smiled. Going back to my dad and his big bushy mustache and cigarette underneath. He would sometimes catch with us and put them in whatever jar was closest. He sometimes thought he was funny by pointing out a bug that was never really there while we went wild looking. Sometimes I wish I could go back and realize then what I see now. That was his way of loving us. His way of sharing with us. Never a man of many words, but I hold onto a lot of things he taught without saying much. Like enjoy the simplicity of a summer night. Let your kids scream and run. When they grow up, they can look back and remember. That life can be rough, but sometimes it can be as fun as a jar full of lightening bugs.