July 1, 2010
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Some Things Literally Bug Me
Some corrections to daughter “murisopsis” blog about her mom (me) and the grasshopper: 1.
It was during my senior year in college 2. I was a student teacher in fourth grade. 3. It was in the spring of 1954. The rest of the account, as she told it, is quite accurate. (So read her blog for Wednesday, if you don’t know what this is all about! She’s really quite an excellent prose and poetry writer.) Anyway…to add to Val’s account: I did genuinely love playing baseball with the children….even got to bat sometimes before they decided and convinced me that I should be their umpire and sometimes coach too. They learned when to bunt, and everyone always won a game before the end of the week. (They were convinced I was related to baseball great Ted Williams.) If it hadn’t been so late in the afternoon, I probably would have stripped out of that girdle in the lady teachers’ lounge/bathroom to see what was causing the itch and discomfort; but I did have to teach the lessons following that memorable afternoon recess baseball game…..and didn’t have time to go there to check it out. After school, the lady’s lounge was full…standing room only, so decided to just get back home instead! I walked home since I was doing my practice teaching at Riley Elementary School which was less than a mile from our home. I went straight to the bathroom without even speaking to anyone, and I remember shuddering when seeing that dead grasshopper which plopped at my feet when I stripped out of that girdle. By the way, I’ve always hated grasshoppers ever since that time!!!
I also had a bee fly up my dress about 6 weeks before my third baby daughter was born. I was sitting on the porch glider at my parents’ home and enjoying the early June weather and admiring my mother’s beautiful climbing roses on the two trellises that graced each side of the front porch. I wasn’t even aware of the bee’s presence until crossing my legs which killed my curious attacker…..but only after it got even by stinging me in the process. I can’t tell you how difficult it is to remove a stinger on one’s inner thigh….near the crotch….when one is eight and a half months pregnant!!! These run-ins with insects happened years before pantyhose were invented…..what a blessing that has been!!!Now the past two years my bug fights have been with those almost invisible chiggers! I guess I should start wearing pantyhose when working in the yard and garden in the evening! On second thought, maybe I should hire a gardener….a handsome hunk of a gardener, ha! And in the meantime, if you want to exterminate any bugs, I suggest using Raid instead of my methods of years ago.
Comments (9)
laughed so hard I cried! I stand corrected on the grasshopper time and place… You had “killer thighs” in your younger years. HAHAHAHA!!!!!
that bee sting must have hurt like crazy!
My, you’ve certainly had some interesting incidents with nature!
@murisopsis -
Funny now….but not then. Your boys may tell the world all about your arachnophobia on a blog of the future.
@royal_diadem -
Words cannot begin to describe it….needed a doctor like you to check it!
@christao408 -
Interesting….maybe, but I’d rather not think about some of them….like the bat which flew all over the house and the possum my dad brought into the house just to show us that it really was just pretending to be dead.
I had a yellowjacket fly up my dress once when I was hanging out the laundry…it stung me right on the butt. Not only did that hurt, but I was SO ANGRY!!!!
Oh my gosh!!! I cannot imagine being stung in the crotch area while pregnant. Yikes!
Yeeeesh! I had a bee up my dress at the end of my first pregnancy, too! Not a pleasant experience, as you know. LOVE the grasshopper story, though.
Before the venue was changed ((sigh)) the Bread and Puppet Theatre group would hold their annual Domestic Resurrection Circus Pageant on a huge field at their Glover, Vermont location. Tens of thousands of poeple would come, spread their blankets, eat their dinners and watch the performance from the sides of the natural ampitheater at the end of that pasture…and, of course, it was the home of millions of little grasshoppers that hopped and flew all over everyone seated there all afternoon and evening! Quite amusing for those of us who did not mind, although there is no telling what the grasshoppers thought of the situation.
Thanks for the smile this morning.
Oh dear! What a time and place for the bee to make it into your undergarments. That was very funny; sorry, I should be more sympathetic.
@ZSA_MD -
It’s funny to me now too…but not back then….said with grimace and shudder!!!