It's a remarkably quiet night, for a July 4th weekend. Usually there's firecrackers, and bottle rockets (I used to love setting off bottle rockets), all sorts of illegal (in New York state) home fireworks. But...it's so calm and quiet right now, at half-past eleven on this Saturday night, that I can actually hear the wind rustling the maple leaves on the tree outside my window.
I think back on those balmy summer nights, when I was a kid.
We usually had the front door open, it had a screen, and you could hear the crickets and other night bugs singing away.
The breeze would be rustling the leaves of the trees, making them sound like constant waves, gently lapping a shoreline.
Me and sis and other kids from our street of eight or so family homes, would gather under the streetlight at the end of our driveway, and hang out. Sometimes we'd ride our bikes around, but mostly we'd just hang out and shoot the breeze about...whatever. Honestly, I don't really remember exactly.
I do remember, being such a scaredy cat, about lightning! We used to get what's called "heat lightning," which is merely some far-distant lightning without any thunder. I remember trying to be cool and ignoring it...when really I just wanted to bolt across our lawn and into the house! I got mildly zapped by a bolt of lightning as a teenager, so maybe I wasn't entirely off with that particular fear.
I remember the close, somewhat humid air, damp with the feel of rain. Making the night dank and mouldy smelling, like an old cellar.
The old streetlamp was just a regular lamp--none of these awful orange or blue haolgen things, but warm and yellow and inviting. There was a hackberry tree that grew up next to the wooden power pole the light was attached to. The effect was such, that if you looked up at the light, the criss-crossing branches encircling it, made them look like a giant cobweb...well, at least I used to think so.
And, I remember some of the things we kids used to do, of a summer's evening. They had these toys, in the early 70's. The were big round semi-transparent balls, filled with some greenish glow-in-the-dark goop. Okay, so, seventies kids were more easily amused than kids today...but we had a blast with these things. We used to run around the dark fields and woods with them, pretending we were gypsies or ghosts or ghouls. Well...you just had to be there, I guess.
Another thing we used to do--and I'm not very proud of this, mind you, now that I'm an adult--but, at dusk, just before full dark, we used to go out into a nearby field, and throw stones at the little brown bats (who were harmless), to try and make them swoop down at us. I don't remember us ever hitting any, but it gave us a great case of the giggles and shrieks, when one dived down too close. I'm not sure why we got such a big hoot out of that, but, unfortunately, we did.
Another thing, was we would catch fireflies, which we called "lightning bugs." Mum would get a jar--usually one of those big Hellman's Mayonnaise jars, or a Fluffernutter (marshmallow fluff for putting on peanut butter sandwiches instead of jelly) jar, and help us to punch holes in the tin lid, for air. Then, we'd go out in the back yard, and try to catch some lightning bugs. When we'd get a few, mum would allow us to keep them on the dresser overnight, to look at...the little phosphorescent winking. She'd let them go again, the following morning. Lightning bugs are amazing!
Here's a video I found on Youtube, that kind of reminds me of those summer nights, back in the early 1970's. It's got the night bugs singing, some heat lightning, and even some lightning bugs--if you look closely.
