The Return of a Childhood Memory

Lightning bugs (or firefly's) are a sign that summer is here in the South. Tonight I stood on my porch and excitedly watched for the first time this year as a few of them lit up the darkness around me!! Seeing them always reminds me of my childhood, when I would catch lightning bugs and put them in a Mason jar with holes in the lid. I have to wonder if today’s generation of kids do this and do they feel the same about lightning bugs that myself and others my age did? And was capturing things and putting them in a Mason jar a "Southern thing?" Because I remember when my Mom would give me two or three Mason jars, and I would punch holes in the tops with a dinner-knife or whatever else I could find and put things like lightning bugs and grasshoppers and yes, even snails in them. Forty years ago, (YIKES!!) we "kids" called this kind of thing fun! My Dad was in the army and I grew up on an army post. For me summer was a time when we looked forward to being outside playing and going barefoot. We went swimming, to the movies on Saturday afternoons and rode our bikes all day without any worries. But when evening came and you could see the lightning bugs, we didn't need a watch to tell us that it was getting late and we'd better be getting home!