Lightning Bugs and Fireflies

Having grown up in Kansas I am not really sure of how much experience folks from Colorado had with lightning bug. In my growing up years, we had them by the yard full.

Many a night throughout the summer all the neighborhood kids would run through the yards catching them in clear glass mason jars making luminous lanterns to carry around.

And it didn't take long for the average American boy to find out that if you pinched them dead at the moment the light was blinking on, it would remain on full blast for some time

Now, before you scold Ol' Dutch and tell him that was cruel, he already knows that and probably was the least among area killers of that era so chill out.

If you are not familiar with these little bugs that so delights with their erratic blinking as they fly around the dark lawns, you have truly missed out on something quite amazing.

I never could figure out how they carried around a battery to keep that tail end a’going either. Turns out it’s a chemical reaction in their tail end and that makes it blink on and off in some mating ritualistic fervor.

Which in fact reminds me of the foolish ways that a lot of people act when they themselves are in the dating scene. Running around half lit and blinking their eyes like a bat in a hailstorm to boot. Just like those bugs.

Trixie and I have found our way down to Texas after an exhausting stay in Idaho helping No. 1 daughter Cricket remodel her house. It was a very long trip and dragging a big ole RV behind me for some 1400 miles in three days just wore me out.

So imagine my despair upon arriving in the Dallas area only to find out our RV spot had already been rented to a bunch of Boy Scouts. Now I normally don't mind these types of organizations and without the Girl Scouts where would I get my Thin Mints?

But to take my spot after a grueling trip of endurance and on the verge insanity, to find my spot gone just about drove me over the edge. Trixie just remind me that I went over there long ago so maybe it was deja vu all over again?

The park manager did some heavy manipulation only to be compared on difficulty as getting dead people to vote and snuck us in to a spot.

Finally hooked up and settled in Ol' Dutch was standing outside enjoying the quiet when the Scouts arrived. I have never seem more flashlights in one spot and lightning bug fever hit me like a brick.

Those dancing flashlights told a tale of an incredible amount of activity as they tried to pitch their tents around us.

They were pretty quiet at night and I was just about to commend them on their wonderful demeanor when I found myself needing to use the shower house in the Park. Imagine trying to fit your schedule into the lives and colon schedules of 119 Boy Scouts that had consumed vast quantities of Beanie Weenies?

Now you know the meaning of the word “impossible.” I did get a shower to which Trixie added an “Amen” which I guess is a good thing?

There are no more fireflies so it seems as I have not seen one in many a year. Some say it’s due to farming practices, some say it’s the sprays we use while others I am sure hold out for global warming or cooling whichever they need to use that day.

I don't know what the cause is but I sure do miss seeing them. The only question is what kind of mother gives their kid a glass mason jar to run around the neighborhood with?