13 Yellow Jacket Bees!

My brother and I had several more encounters with bees. Once we were digging for worms so we could go fishing. We were at Clear Lake, California and found a small creek that fed into the lake. We were alarmed when our shovel hit a Yellow Jacket nest. Out charged the angry yellow jackets and away Richard and I ran.

Yellow Jackets were swarming all around us and Richard was stung. I headed for the cabin we were staying in; with my brother right behind me. About half way to the cabin, I saw a barbed wire fence! The thought raced through my mind that we would have to slow down to crawl through the fence and the angry Yellow Jackets would have no trouble catching up with us.

Just then a wonderful idea came into my mind and I stopped dead in my tracks; took two quick steps and hid behind one of the big trees that we were running through. I stood perfectly still, but yelled at my brother, "Hide behind a tree!" Evidently my brother did not have the same inspiration that I had and ran right by me to the fence. All of the Yellow Jackets followed him. I guess they like moving targets. He was stung 3 or 4 times as he climbed through the fence and a couple of more times between there and the cabin. Of course he was screeming all the way. It was kind of funny and I laughed, but not where mom could hear me.

This same experience happened a couple of other times in our lives. Richard always ran and got stung and I always stood still or ducked behind a bush or tree. The bees or Yellow Jackets always followed Richard.

Lesson Learned

I'm not sure what ones learns from this experience other than sometimes when danger is around it is best to stand behind the protection of a tree and not move. Then again, maybe it means that we ought to go through life with our brother near by. Richard and I had a lot of fun together; except when ther were bees around.

12 BEE - ATTITUDES

Bees are very loyal and extremely hard working creatures. They are so conscientious that they get very upset when they are disturburbed in their work. Maybe it is because they have to visit from 50 to 600 ordinary flowers to fill up their honey sacs before returning to the hive. Whatever the reason, I learned at an early age to not bother a bee or a hive.

Once when I was very young, I was living in a foster home near Redding, California. Mrs Griffy, my foster mom, was trying to get me to not put my mouth over the water faucets when I got a drink outside; something about germs. I ran a lot and got real hot and thirsty. Putting my mouth over the water faucets when I got a drink and then turning it on, kept the water off my shoes and also from running down my neck.

One evening I was having an especially good time riding my stick horse, Tigger, around the house and yard. As we rounded the corner my eye caught sight of the water faucet. I pulled Trigger to a halt, dropped to my knees and put my mouth over the faucet. In one sweepting motion I immediately turned on the water. To my horror I felt something squirmy like squirt into my mouth and I heard a very muffled buzzing sound.

Even a six year old can figure out when there is trouble in his mouth. No sooner had that first burst of water gushed into my mouth sending a bee into a dark wet hole, when out came the water with an even greater force. Also, out came the bee gasping for air and very wet and mad. Fortunately the bee was stunned and I was terrified. Before the bee could recover, I was on my horse and around the corner and into the house. I remained there for about a half hour before venturing outside again.

LESSON LEARNED

From that day to this I have never put my

mouth over any kind of faucet or hose or fountain.

It is amazing what a good teacher experience is.

I also learned that maybe grown ups know

what they are talking about after all.

11 WHY FROGS DON'T SMOKE

One day my brother and I learned a great lesson from a frog. While living on the goat ranch, we had learned that the best way to catch a frog was to sneak up on it with a fishing pole in hand. As a frog sat on the bank of the stream or on a pond lilly, we would dangle a baited hook back and forth in front of it's nose. Frogs do have noses you know. The frog, thinking this was a tasty meal flying by, would leap out and snag the bait. In a split second it was hooked and we would reel in our catch.

Our mother would cook the legs of the big frogs for dinner if we would bring 5 or 6 frogs back to camp. For some reason the frog legs would hop around the frying pan as they were being cooked. At first, we thought that they were still alive and mom and Aunt Edna would tease us a lot about the "jumping frog legs." Later we learned that it had something to do with muscle contractions. Actually frog legs are kind of tasty, especially when one is really hungry.

Well, one day we went out to catch our supper. We didn't have much success for some reason. However, after several hours of trying, we snagged a huge frog. I suppose that when the frog was stretched out it probably measured a good 12-14 inches from head to toe. We took the frog back to camp in an old gunny sack. It hopped and kicked all the way.

Since one frog was not enough to make a meal, Richard and I decided to try an experiement. We snitched a cigarette from Uncle Curly's coat pocket. We then took the frog out of the sack and sat it on the fender of our old car. The adults were over at the other side of the camp visiting under the shade of a large oak tree. They could not see what we were up to.
The frog was very tired and just eyed us with a suspicious look. It didn't try to jump away. We held it and lit the cigarette and put it into the frog's mouth. We stood back to see what would happen. We thought the frog would spit the cigarette out, but I guess frogs can't spit. The frog just sat there with the cigarette sticking out of it's mouth. It looked really funny and we began to giggle and laugh. Then the frog took a deep inhale of smoke. We thought that it would let it out and maybe blow some smoke rings like Uncle Curly did, but it didn't. In a few seconds it sucked in another big gulp of smoke and then another and then another. As we watched in amazement, the frog began to puff up and soon looked like an odd shaped balloon.

We were laughing our heads off, not knowing what was going to happen next. Suddenly, the frog let all of the smoke out at once in a loud, strange, squawking explusion of air. It's eyes rolled around several times and then it flopped over on it's back; shook and died right before our eyes. My brother and I stopped laughing. We poked the poor frog with a stick to make sure that it was really dead; it was. Sure enough that old frog had really croaked! We stood there for a few moments staring at the frog. Richard broke the silence with a soft, "Wow."

Then we leaped into action! We grabbed the dead frog and the cigarette and buried them both on the other side of the camp before the adults found out what we had done. We knew that they would probably be hopping mad if they found out what we had done. We were really scared and didn't tell them until years later.

LESSON LEARNED

I'm not sure about my brother, but I decided on that very day that I would never smoke. Every time I was offered a smoke in the years that followed, I could see in my mind's eye a distant memory of that poor frog, puffing up, rolling it's eyes and dying dead away in front of two startled boys. It was easy to smile and to say, "No thanks, I don't smoke." Thanks to that old California frog, I have never smoked during my life time. I still feel sorry for the frog that gave it's life to teach two young boys an important lesson of life. I might also add that my brother has never smoked either and has lived a clean wonderful life.

SMOKING CAN BE DANGEROUS TO YOUR HEALTH!

10 THE UPSET CRAWDAD

While living on the goat ranch, north of Willits, California, my brother, Richard and I had a lot of time to do some exploring. We were camped right next to the goat corrals and barn. We were at the edge of a beautiful meadow; nestled between tree covered mountains.

There was a small stream that meandered along one side of the meadow. This stream provided Richard and I with many summer days of creative play and adventure. Life as a child would not be the same without sticks, dirt and water.

The stream was the home of hundreds of frogs, bugs, snakes and other creatures. One day we were trying to scare some frogs out from under a bank of earth that protruded out into the stream. Richard kneeled down and reached into the water and back under the protruding bank.

Suddenly, he let out a bone chilling scream that scared me half to death. I looked over just in time to see him jerk his hand out of the water. Firmly attached to his finger was a large crawdad. My first thought was that he had been stung by a monster scorpion. I'm not sure what thoughts were flashing through my brother's mind, but as he screamed and violently shook his hand , the crawdad let go and sailed back into the safety of the water.

I think we both realized at the same instant that the creature was not a deadly scorpion, but an almost harmless crawdad. In a moment of quick relief, we both burst out laughing. However, we never again stuck our hands down and under where we couldn't see what was there. I don't know why, but we never told our parents about these kind of experiences.

LESSON LEARNED

Life is kind of like that too.

Sometimes we must be careful not to invade someone else's space.