Whatever happened to… and other thoughts.
Vintage Fly Swatters
Yesterday during a phone chat, Tucker told me that he had run across an old-fashioned fly swatter. I didn’t think to ask the circumstances of his discovery. Tucker is the quintessential collector and saver, so I wasn’t surprised at all, but I should have asked him for a picture. I’m not just sure what “old-fashioned” means. I wonder if he meant the fly swatters I remember from my youth — actually the only kind I’ve ever seen.
But, come to think of it, we haven’t had a fly swatter around here for quite a while. What happened to that one we had hanging from a hook in the woodshed right outside the kitchen door when I was a kid? And why don’t we need it these days?
And, speaking of doors, what ever happened to all the screen doors we had? I remember clearly that all the outer doors also had screen doors so we could have a breeze through the house in the summer. Were those screen doors just put up in the warm season? Or were they there year round? We do have one left, but that doorway is no longer in use. And actually, the screened part is just a window in that outer door. Not like the really-o, truly-o screen doors we all had years ago.
Come to think of it, I don’t think we have many flies any more. Is that possible? Why have screen doors and fly swatters become things of the past? Is that so everywhere? Or just here on the Peninsula? Or maybe just here at our house?
Didn’t we all have one of these once?
Somehow, all of this reminds me of my all-time favorite Shel Silverstein poem:
How Many? How Much?
How many slams in an old screen door?
Depends how loud you shut it.
How many slices in a bread?
Depends how thin you cut it.
How much good inside a day?
Depends how good you live ‘em.
How much love inside a friend?
Depends how much you give ‘em.
Funny what thoughts are triggered by a conversation with a friend…
Cuzzin Sydney, In many necks of the woods (including mine in the DC suburbs of VA) there is an extensive helicopter-based spraying program to get rid of any nasty insects. However, that won’t work on the 17 year locust (cicada) of which the local brood will hatch this spring in monumental proportions. This is a welcome treat for many critters who gorge themselves on the noisy critters (I’ve been out in the woods when their cacophony is at a max and it was almost enough to cause pain in the ears!) including not a few dogs and not a few humans who serve them up in various ways—perhaps chocolatized to fool the unwary!
I’ve not heard of any “spraying programs” here except as related to ghost shrimp on the bay — hugely controversial and finally stopped. I do remember that there was a mosquito abatement program one year that involved tossing some sort of “donut” (no doubt laced with insecticide) into standing water in the marshy areas of the County. I don’t think they’ve done that for a number of years. I sort of wondered if we see fewer flies around here now because the farms and their animals are gone. I think the cattle and horses and pigs of my childhood probably attracted flies — but I don’t really know that for sure.