June Bugs

Does anyone else remember playing with June bugs? For some reason, the memory popped into my head today. When I was a kid, we lived just up the hill from my mother’s parents, and in their yard, at one side of the house, June bugs flourished every summer. I and my sister and my younger aunts and uncles, along with any visiting cousins, etc., got a big kick out of playing with June bugs. If you don’t know what a June bug is, think of a Japanese beetle, about three times bigger – all slick green and hard, with black, scaly legs. They made wonderful toys – they didn’t even need batteries. Mamaw would cut off a length of stout thread – about two feet, I guess, and you’d catch a June bug and tie the thread to one of its legs. If you were squeamish about it, Mamaw would tie it for you. Then you’d fling the bug out, holding the other end of the string, and fly it like a short kite. The bugs made a loud, angry buzz as they tried to get away from the string, and we spun in circles or ran across the yard, pulling them through the air. Sometimes your bug would take a notion to land on you with its scratchy, clinging legs, so you’d have to shriek and dance until you made it take off again. If you had to go to the bathroom, or if you ran through the patch of fallen chinquapin needles and had to sit down and pick them out of your calloused foot, you could just tie your bug to the doorknob, where it would usually hang, resting for a few minutes before rising up again in its funny, zigzag flight. This game could go on all afternoon – none of us ever thought about going inside until we had to – and by the end of the day, the bugs were worn out, way more than we were. Sometimes they got away; other times you got hold of a weak playmate who couldn’t last all day, so had to be discarded and replaced, quite casually, with a fresh one.

I know that many, many people talk about “the good old days” and how much different it was for kids “back then”. I know everyone has heard it a thousand times. But it really is incredible to me when I see and hear of how kids “play” now. The toy must be electronic, it must be the latest version, it must be expensive. I think of the play of my own childhood: picking wild berries and honeysuckles, gathering mown grass and molding it in a plastic butter bowl to make a bird’s nest, catching lightening bugs, twirling around with a June bug on a string. The next time you or your kid is bored, when all the video games have been played to death, or, god forbid, the internet connection is down, try catching a June bug. Don’t mind the scratchy feeling on your palm – I promise the bug can’t hurt you. Hold it firm with your thumb on its back and your forefinger on its belly, and have someone tie a piece of heavy thread around one of its back legs. It has to be tight, now, or the leg can slip out. Take a firm hold on the thread and throw the bug up in the air, and take a few steps back. Feel the vibrations hum through the string to your fingers; see how long you can keep up the flight. . .