Summer in Indiana

No new pictures tonight. Just the musings of a native Hoosier who remembers James Whitcomb Riley's line 'Ain't God good to Indiana.' (I really don't remember HIM!!! I'm not THAT old!)

The lightening bugs appeared at the end of May. They just seem to lend an enchanted element to a summer evening. I enjoy watching them rise from the grass/soy beans/hay and disappear. They return to the grass and the next evening, it all starts again. The wheat will be ready in the next 10 days or so and shortly after that, they will disappear for another year.

Thinking about them got me to remembering other summer bugs from my youth. I realize now that I haven't seen a June bug for a long time. They usually came before June and stayed most of the summer so I'm not sure why they were called June bugs. I remember hearing them buzzing around and I guess bouncing off things. They made a big 'pop' when they hit something.

Then there were the oats bugs. These little black bugs used to be everywhere in the summer but have been gone for a long time. They were small enough to come in to the house through the screens. I don't remember them ever flying. They just sort of 'infiltrated' everywhere. I remember them in the butter - yes back then we had real, honest-to-God butter and it sat out all the time and so was very soft. The bugs got caught in it. Every fall we would take all the pictures down from the walls and remove all the oats bugs that had worked their way behind the glass. As I said, they were every place - even on us. And in pre-air conditioning times, they stuck to our sweaty bodies. Ok, now I've grossed you out so I'll quit. But it's just another indication of how much things have changed 'down on the farm'!!!