I saw a lightning bug tonight!

[Beth]

I haven't seen them down here since I was in kindergarten. I thought they aren't supposed to be here. Anyway, it was a fantastic sight to behold:)

[livius drusus]

That's great, Beth. I love the little guys; saw them all the time in Connecticut and in Rome (mainly outside the city itself). Were they all white/yellow or did you get some color variety too?

[Crumb]

I've never seen one. :sadnana:

[The Lone Ranger]

In the U.S., fireflies occur only in the eastern half of the country, alas. There are several species native to Florida, but fireflies don't cope well with urbanization as a rule, so they're becoming rarer.

Fireflies are a particularly treasured memory for me. I really miss them!


Cheers,

Michael

[Dingfod]

Lightning bugs will show up here when it gets warmer and stays that way. They are a mostly summertime nocturnal insect in these parts.

[Dragoon]

As Lone Ranger said, we don't have them out here in California so when I attended a big Civil War reenactment near Gettysburg a few years ago and was camped out, out there with the horses picketed nearby, in the warm, soft air of the evening when the battles of the day were over, I was absolutely charmed to see them again. I had forgotten how much fun they were to see and capture in jars. Seeing them again brought a huge flood of unexpected innocent childhood memories of rural Pennsylvania back into my cynical old mind. Wonderful!

One of the many things I love about where I live out on the left coast is the general lack of insects. This year we have had a lot of rain and many insects come out in the evenings there at my stables now, but alas, no fireflies. How wonderful it would be if I could be out at my stables in the evening as I am, watch the setting sun cause the eastern sky turn purple, the western sky turn orange, wait while the full moon rises yellow and warm and bright above the beautiful San Rafael Mountains and see fireflies come out. Oh well, you can't have everything. :D

You all have the fireflies, I'll keep the rest.

[Crumb]

Maybe we should try and introduce fireflys to the west coast, Dragoon.

[Dragoon]

You know, if I could get a few breeding pairs, I'd try it out at my stables. The environment there might support them at least for a while. I think our Mediterranean Climate of summer long drought and lack of whatever they eat would keep them from surviving throughout the year though, even in protected areas like my stables. I'm sure Lone Ranger knows much more about it.

I noticed, in an earlier post, you said you never saw one. Even for an adult they are a special treat, but if you have childhood memories associated with them, seeing them after many years is almost enough to make you laugh with pleasure. Of course, kids and people are so jaded with television and video games today. Spectaculars of all sorts have dulled our sense of natural wonder and maybe something as natural as an insect winking brightly followed by many others winking all across a darkening yard or field on a softly warm evening, maybe that is just too "ordinary."

I know that in the evening, when we had fed and watered the horses and ourselves and I had the leisure to wander out away from our picket fire and away from our "company street" where our tents were pitched and into the Pennsylvania countryside, it was a beautiful and welcoming experience to see them come out.

I think I've had too much Bourbon and I need to hit the sack - I'm getting too sentimental. :wave:

[ceptimus]

When I was working in Corfu, there were spectacular firefly displays around May time.

From the top of a building, looking down on fields full of fireflies, you could see waves of light propagating around like ripples on a pond. My theory to explain this was that each firefly tended to 'switch on' its lamp in response to seeing a neighbour light up, and the slight delay time led to the ripple effect. It was very beautiful.

The fireflies there all lit up the same colour (white). I caught one to see how it worked. It just looked like a very small grayish-brown moth, except that its bum was lit up like a minature torch.

[livius drusus]

My theory to explain this was that each firefly tended to 'switch on' its lamp in response to seeing a neighbour light up, and the slight delay time led to the ripple effect. It was very beautiful.

I think we've just hit on the inspiration for the smiley processor. :thumbup:

[Beth]

That's great, Beth. I love the little guys; saw them all the time in Connecticut and in Rome (mainly outside the city itself). Were they all white/yellow or did you get some color variety too?It was just a lone bug, white light. It was pitch dark and at first I thought it was my son with some sort of light reflecting off of him, then I noticed it fluttering and flickering, I walked closer to the floating light and it was a lightning bug. I am hoping that this lone guy signifies there are more around. I intend to go out more at night to see if I can spot anymore.

[wei yau]

As a kid growing up in Queens, NYC, I spent many a summer night catching lightning bugs and placing them in jars. I recall seeing the entire backyard lit up with small, floating lights dancing on the air.

Now that we are in Northern Virginia, I still see a few, but nowhere near as many as I did in NYC. I'm looking forward to seeing them again, but this time with my daughter. I think she'd be fascinated by them, I know that I still am.

[TomJoe]

As a kid growing up in Queens, NYC, I spent many a summer night catching lightning bugs and placing them in jars. I recall seeing the entire backyard lit up with small, floating lights dancing on the air.

Ditto. Richmond Hill, Queens native New Yorker here. I grew up only a couple of miles away from where John Gotti lived in Ozone Park.

[wei yau]

Ditto. Richmond Hill, Queens native New Yorker here. I grew up only a couple of miles away from where John Gotti lived in Ozone Park.

First, lived in Corona, Queens. Just blocks away from the Junction Blvd station for the #7 line. Then, lived in College Point, Queens...in a condominium development built on a former garbage dump where John Gotti's "family" may have dropped-off some bodies.

[TomJoe]

First, lived in Corona, Queens. Just blocks away from the Junction Blvd station for the #7 line.

My grandparents used to live in Middle Village, right off of Woodhaven Boulevard. When I was little, and would spend the night, my grandma and I would sit outside on the porch and watch the planes fly overhead into La Guardia.

And if no one knows what the hell we're talking about, I've found a map of the Queens neighborhoods so people can get some sort of reference (see attached) as well as a small blurb on some of the more "famous" neighborhoods (http://gonyc.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.queensbp.org%2Fcontent_web%2Fdepts%2Fcultural_affairs%2Fneighborhoods.htm). Also, if people didn't know, NYC is actually more than just Manhattan. Manhattan is one of five boroughs (Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island) which in total, are considered New York City. For the most part though, if you speak to anyone outside of Staten Island ... Staten Island doesn't count. It smells really bad, probably because it houses the city landfill. :P In addition, to complicate things even further, Brooklyn and Queens are actually part of Long Island, Bronx is actually part of the "mainland" and Manhattan and *ahem* Staten Island are their own individual islands. :deepsigh: I miss home. :cry:

Edited to add: Damn gif is too large, I need to drop it down in size before I reattach it.

Re-edited to add: Screw it, view the damn map here (http://www.queensbp.org/content_web/images/map_boundaries2.gif).

Then, lived in College Point, Queens...in a condominium development built on a former garbage dump where John Gotti's "family" may have dropped-off some bodies.

Heh, we can all start playing the "John Gotti game" ... a new spin-off from the Kevin Bacon game.

[Dingfod]

A warm windy summer night last year I got up to go to the bathroom about midnight and noticed what I thought were lightning bugs up in the elm tree by our fence, little spots of light up in the upper branches that would light up for a second then fade out. I thought it strange to see them up high in a tree like that, they're usually down near the grass. I watched for a little while and noticed sparks flying, some reaching the ground. The wind was blowing the small branches of the tree up against the power line, and it was arcing until it burnt the little twig up. There was plenty of dry grass around that could've caught fire so I called the power company and then went outside to wait for their service truck. Then I noticed the same thing going on down by the cottonwood tree halfway down our driveway. The power company technical supervisor showed up, watched the light show for a few minutes and said there was nothing to worry about, it happens all the time.

[Sauron]

I remember them, as a kid, seeing lightning bugs in West Virginia, mostly at my grandparents' house. They had a big old house, with a wide front porch supported by columns - think "Waltons", and you've got it about right. It was down in the "holler", and up against the woods, so there was always something alive out in the bushes.

Right before dusk, you'd see the a few early ones come out. And then as it got darker, there would be lightning bugs everywhere. I remember how bright they were, and that they made no noise at all - so you could never tell when or where the next one would shine. Soon after that, we'd see the bats come out. As kids, me and my cousins used to have fun by tossing pebbles into the air and watching the bats follow the pebble all the way back down to the ground, and then veer away at the last moment. And in the background you could hear the katydids: chee-CHEECH....chee-CHEEECH....che-CHEECH. I used to marvel at how loud the woods could be at night. And on rare occasions, we kids would hear something really scary: the little screech owls, no bigger than your hand.

Sometimes we'd sit on the porch and string green beans, or shuck corn. Other times, we'd just talk until late into the night - stories from my dad growing up in the Depression, family humor, the latest gossip from around the county, etc. And once in awhile you'd see lightning from a far-off rainstorm that was coming.

My grandparents have passed on now, and the old house has been sold to strangers, who can't possibly understand how important that farmhouse is to me. But I would not trade those memories for all the money in the world.

[Corona688]

I haven't seen them down here since I was in kindergarten. I thought they aren't supposed to be here. Anyway, it was a fantastic sight to behold:) We've even got them in Saskatchewan, though you will NOT find them in the city. Me and the family I belong to were driving out beyond the cityglow to watch the stars and for awhile I thought my vision was playing tricks on me -- but there they were, blinking at each other among a group of trees beside a wheat field.

When we came back a few weeks later, they were still there. Must be just the right conditions. I'll have to look for them again this summer.

[Dragoon]

... ... ...the old house has been sold to strangers, who can't possibly understand how important that farmhouse is to me. But I would not trade those memories for all the money in the world.

Your story of West Virginia was well told and full of vivid images and certainly conjured up deep memories from my mind.

My story is identical except we were a few miles north in western Pennsylvania and my story has a less than happy ending too.

When my beloved aunt Helen was too confused to take care of herself properly, her strong willed sister put her in a retirement home. She then took it on herself to sell the family home and all its things inside, things that all had precious memories associated with them. I don't know what legal arrangements she had, but before anybody in the family knew what she was going to do, everything was gone.

She sold the house and all its contents to PA hillbillies (just as degenerate a race as to be found anywhere in the world) who quickly proceeded to absolutely trash the place and destroy everything. My Aunt got rid of everything, cheap and fast, so the rest of us wouldn't "fight over anything" and of course the new hick owners held nothing of very much value, having no taste, education or memories.

Yes, those memories are priceless, but when you see everyone pass on and your precious ancestral home (you thought would always be there) destroyed, you really know "you can't go home anymore."

But there's always the fireflies. :deepsigh:

[JoeP]

In Raleigh, NC I saw a firefly doing its thing on the far side of the pool ... crept closer and was pleased it didn't move ... but then I found why ... it was caught and being eaten by a lizard. :( :bleh:

Here in the wilder parts of SA I've seen clouds of fireflies down by the lake's edge at dusk - very pretty. :firefly:

[livius drusus]

Hey, TomJoe, just in case you didn't see it, eldar took y'all's I :beating: New York nostalgia to a new thread (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2351).

[TomJoe]

Hey, TomJoe, just in case you didn't see it, eldar took y'all's I :beating: New York nostalgia to a new thread (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2351).

I saw it. I figured someone sent him a PM encouraging the move. ;)

BTW, the wink smiley is lame.

[wei yau]

I saw it. I figured someone sent him a PM encouraging the move. ;)


Actually I did all by myself. I'm a good boy.

:pat:

[livius drusus]

You are a good boy, and I'm not the pathological control freak kibbitzer TomJoe seems to think I am. :glare:

BTW: is not!

[godfry n. glad]

Well, I'm from the specific Norbest, just like Crumb. The one and only time I saw fireflies was when I went back to Jay County, Indiana, to visit my mother's family. I was six. I was totally entralled with the fireflies....lightnin' bugs. I haven't seen then since.

:firefly:

[godfry n. glad]

Well, I'm from the specific Norbest, just like Crumb.

The one and only time I saw fireflies was when I went back to Jay County, Indiana, to visit my mother's family. I was six. I was totally entralled with the fireflies....lightnin' bugs. I haven't seen them since.

:firefly: