Chase announced "I'm going to hunt for a frog, granny!" It was a hot afternoon and I seriously doubted he would find one. I sat out on the front porch with his mom enjoying a glass of wine together as he ducked in and out of the bushes and leaves. I tried to tell him that frogs liked cooler and wetter areas. It was a beast of an afternoon but that did not deter his quest. I told him it was almost dinner time. If he found one he could not keep him as I'm sure his frog family was waiting for him to come home safely.
My mind wandered a bit back to when I was little.
We would be gone all afternoon playing down by the creek which ran through a wooded area
behind our house in Virginia. It was the perfect place to hang out once school was out for summer.
Cool water flowed and you could catch the water
bugs that skated on the still mirror surface in a deeper area. Salamanders, minnows, turtles, frogs and crawfish lived there. I heard there were water moccasins but never saw one. Rattle snakes stayed to themselves, too. I bet they watched us as we played in their
territory probably very close to them. We were so lucky.
We built forts and my brothers played Army down in the valley.
There was a large embankment carved out of the clay. When it rained heavily, the water would boil and swell in that area. You could almost go rafting on the muddy swells.
Once my friends and I ventured through the storm drain from where it spilled run off from the neighborhood streets. We were adventurous and oblivious to the danger of doing that.
It was fun to hear our echoes in the large cool concrete tube. At the manhole one could climb up the rusted ladder and hear a car drive right over you!
I smoked my first cigarette in a huge tree down in the valley that we called the Monkey Tree.
It had thick low lying limbs that made it ideal for climbing. You could see quite a ways from those higher branches.
Once my sister and I caught a crab when we went to the beach. Against my parents better judgement, they let us take it home. We decided to release him down by the creek but I doubt he survived very long. I have often felt bad about taking him away from his natural habitat and into a dangerous new place to try to survive.
Just then Chase came running up to his mom and I with the cutest,
triumphant giggle and smile as he held up a tiny tree frog for us to see.
He had hunted and had his first catch! After a few minutes of examining him he let him go among the
shadows of the setting sun and home safely.
Cathy Windham
6/19/14