Today while catching up on a few blogs, I visited my buddy Darryll over at All About The 1970s where in this Old-Fashioned Fishing post he talks about a love for the great outdoors. He reminisced about how kids back in the day didn't hole up with their Wii and enjoyed the fresh air and all that good stuff.
What went wrong with me? I loved riding my bike, roller skating in the park, making grass and stick forts for my Smurfs. Hell, I even had a tree house! Remember that post? I'll refresh your memory with the photo... See, look to the right--I am one with nature--and oh, how I loved that pink and white striped Healthtex shirt. It was my favorite! Anyway...When I was a kid growing up on Long Island, I went to sleep-away camp every summer for three years. As I commented to Darryll, this was like a rite of passage for Long Island kids back then. Sure, I was afraid of non-existent bears (camp was on a beach, no bears!) but other than that, I didn't hate it. Oh wait, I hated the Jellyfish when we'd have open swim. Hmm... Maybe it was my age. By that time, I was 11 and preferred boys to bugs. In fact, here's some smut reading about my camp make out sessions. Again, so glad my mom doesn't follow.
Rewind to age 7 or 8, I loved ladybugs and ants. I would collect them in old pickle jars and make an entire home for them. My dad would help me hammer several nails in the jar lid to allow for proper ventilation. I would drop a luscious strawberry at the bottom of the jar as food.
I loved my buggies, as I called them. I loved them so much so, that I even risked expulsion from grammar school. If there was such a thing back in 1980. I recall carrying the bug jar into my second grade gym class-- the gym teacher totally freaked out on me. I was quickly instructed to leave my jar outside the building until school was out. Going forward, I was asked to please leave my ants and ladybugs home.
Every spring and summer I dread the bugs that always make their way into my bedroom. The intimidating smelly skunks that stalk our apartment building. The whole lot of it. BBQs and outdoor events and parties? No thanks, well I kinda like BBQs, but hate uninvited guests like flies, bees and wasps. I know, I know, each insect has a reason for existing. I get that. I'm just saying... Let me vent. Maybe I'm just having a bad week although it's only Tuesday.
My uncle had this place up in Canada that I stayed at for awhile in my teens. Up on top of a hill. Big old, drafty place. Lady bug infestation. The room I stayed in was swarmed with them. Plus there were these weird mutant bugs. Spiders with four legs... bees the size of hummingbirds... very freaky.
ReplyDeleteI'm an outdoors person. Nothing I love more than sitting on the porch at night strumming away at a guitar, or burning things. Put that one in to see if it threw you off.
That was a great post Ally. For the most part it sounded like fun! Good thing you didn't have my grandma, we spent a lot of time camping. Not just "regular" camping, but wilderness camping, in primative wild areas. They loved it. I liked it (for a while)
ReplyDeleteI used to be the same way, tomboy to the max. Not so much anymore. Give me my AC and no bugs, please.
ReplyDeleteWow, I never got to go to camp. Stupid lame California childhood. Most outdoors we got was riding bikes around the neighborhood and playing basketball.
ReplyDeleteI'm not an outdoors person either but played a lot outside as a kid. I had a treehouse too and a massive sandpit that my brothers and I would create cities in. There was some strange place up the road that looked like a miniature grand canyon which we called Star Wars because it also looked a bit like that.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what happened to me but now I much prefer to stay inside - close to my creature comforts.
I really should get out more.
I was the same way. I would be outside from sun up to sun down as a kid. Riding my bike, playing with friends, etc. I think kids just have more stuff to entertain themselves inside nowadays to be like that....and society has just changed a lot. I could go on and on about that :-)
ReplyDeleteYou know, just yesterday, I was watching my girl zoom around the yard. She too, is a bug girl. And I realized, that's the secret. It's why they can eat an entire hot fudge sundae and not gain an ounce of fat. When we're kids, we enjoy the sunshine and the grass and the wind in our face. We get out there. When does that slip away from us? Maybe today, I'll go outside and run around my yard. I wonder what my neighbors will think?
ReplyDeleteHey - your site is changing, yes? I like it.
ReplyDeleteI am apt to say in summer, I hate nature, I hate nature"
I have never been a bug lover and bees scare the daylights out of me ever since i was attacked by them.
But I still love to play outside, i just grin and bear it :-)
I played outside a lot as a kid in the summer because it was usually hot and miserable inside. I climbed a lot of trees too! Now, I still like to be outside, but I look forward to coming inside too!
ReplyDeleteI liked this post, so vent anytime! Hope your week improves!
Sounds like adulthood has sucked away all the simple joys you've had with summer. Though I hear you about the buggies. Mosquitos love me for some reason. I'll definitely have to check out Daryl's blog. Thanks for the heads up. And sorry for the bad beginning to the week. haha
ReplyDeleteHow's that any different from now? Let's see pics of the bug collection
ReplyDeleteI like the outdoors outside. When it tries to come inside it pisses me off just a bit. I don't like bugs as much as I did when I was a kid either.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I was ever outdoorsy, even as a youngster (mind you, we did live on a council estate in inner city London so I wasn't really allowed out much). I enjoyed your rant! x
ReplyDeleteLet me just tell you a few years back we had a neighbor who tore down the fence between our houses to put up a new one and he must have messed with a carpenter ant colony because they moved to MY house. I had just had my second daughter and I remember one night being woken up by something crawling up my arm...Now if you have never seen one of those things they are like sugar ants on steriods...I was ascared!!! We sold that house and saved ourselves. I hate bugs!
ReplyDeleteYup, definitely a bad week! Over from SITS to say hey x
ReplyDeleteI always hated bugs. I was even too scared to catch lightning bugs. I did play outside sometimes, mostly in the 70s. I'm jealous- I wanted a tree house back then.
ReplyDeleteI hate, hate, HATE bugs. Send some nice weather this week, though!
ReplyDeleteThanks for following me! I can totally relate. I blogged last week or so about our annual ant friends coming to visit. Ugh!
ReplyDeleteI spent the day outside today. It was in the high 70's here in AZ. I got the sunburn to prove it. That is what I hate about hanging outside. Of course I always forget the sunblock.
ReplyDeleteI never got to go to sleep away camp as a kid (I grew up on LI too) I always wanted to.
I love the way you wrote this. It brought me up to the treehouse in my health tex shirt too. But I was avoided the bugs.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Robyn
My son loves ants! He points them out to me all the time, and if I try to 'get rid of them', he yells at me and says 'But Daddy! I love them!'
ReplyDeleteWait a minute, Jerry, you didn't go to camp because you didn't go to camp.... lol. There are camps in California, you and I just didn't go to them.... It would be like me saying that I wasn't in Boy Scouts because I lived in California....
Greetings dahling! I loved this post, especially your reference to your favorite Healthex shirt. OMG, I remember Healthex being a part of my wardrobe :) I've always envied kids who went to camp. Never got to myself boo :(
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