..got to see them in Ohio last month. They are so cool! I have been so deprived! I even got to hold one and just look at it for a while. They are like beetles with a lightbulb in their bums.
By the way Cedar Point is awesome especially if you go to the waterpark too.
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
I had one in my bedroom last night. Not so cool in the bedroom.
Posted by TheHumanTarget (Member # 7129) on :
When my sister and I were little, we would catch them and put them in an empty mayonaise jar. Once, when my mom told my sister to let them out, she opened the jar in her room and her ceiling twinkled all night...
Posted by The Pixiest (Member # 1863) on :
Pix
Posted by unicornwhisperer (Member # 294) on :
Obviously Pix, you're kidding.
Posted by The Pixiest (Member # 1863) on :
Obviously =)
We had fireflies where I grew up. I loved them. A creature that could make it's own light. It's still amazing when I think about it.
Pix
Posted by imenimok (Member # 7679) on :
I was in PA over the weekend. I always forget how dark it is in the country. And then the windsheild started to glow in one tiny spot...
Posted by ReikoDemosthenes (Member # 6218) on :
I finally got to see them for the first time, a few years back, when I was in Manitoba...it was weird and random to suddenly see spots of light going off and on all over the place
Posted by Darth Ender (Member # 7694) on :
With the Dark Side you can make the Fireflies do your bidding
Posted by Eaquae Legit (Member # 3063) on :
I saw them for the first time last summer, when I was at camp. It was lovely.
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
Fireflies are very common here in New Jersey, and where I grew up in New York. I always took them for granted as an expected part of summer -- like humidity or ice cream.
I didn't realize that they are not ubiquitous everywhere.
Posted by Jay (Member # 5786) on :
It's real fun when one goes splat on the windshield.....
Posted by screechowl (Member # 2651) on :
Permit me a moment to speak like an old man
I remember in Virginia the dark countryside of summer when the fields and hedgrows would be filled with the miniature flashes of light.
There were so many of the lightning bugs, which is what we called them, that there seemed to be stars on the face of the earth.
A scooping hand from a child would capture two or three at a pass. They were a part of a child's summer as much as stars in the night sky.
Now, like the whip-poor-will, they are so diminished.
But I am happy you got to see them, even if just a few.
spelling error edit
Posted by Vadon (Member # 4561) on :
I still have never seen one in real life... oh well. ^_^
Posted by screechowl (Member # 2651) on :
Vadon,
I hope you do. The simple flash of light is a part of childhood, like the crayfish in a creek or the sound of cicada's in the summer evening. Simple things.
Posted by HandEyeProtege (Member # 7565) on :
Fireflies are one of the summer things I miss from the midwest. It wasn't until this Fourth of July that I realized that Seattle doesn't have them. My childhood Fourth of July memories all include chasing fireflies (or lightning bugs, as it were) until it got dark enough for the fireworks to start.
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
I love fireflies. Their photoemitting mechanisms are a fascinating study.
Posted by Vadon (Member # 4561) on :
Wow, I really must have had a deprived childhood. Didn't have crayfish in creeks, and I wasn't even sure what a cicada was... found a website and listened to their sound... rather annoying.
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
Yeah, I have no idea what a cicada or a crayfish are, either.
My first firefly experience was a week after I moved to Sri Lanka, and one was in our bedroom, mostly hanging on to our mosquito net. It blinked for hours. The second was a couple of weeks ago, and it was stuck in our living room. It's so cool!
Posted by Enigmatic (Member # 7785) on :
"In case you were wondering, no, your butt hasn't lit up." "I don't even know which muscles to clench!"
--Enigmatic
Posted by unicornwhisperer (Member # 294) on :
Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on :
Enigmatic, that's EXACTLY what I was thinking!
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
We saw fireflies when we went up to Atoka. Boon and KPC were amazed that I had never seen them before.
Posted by UofUlawguy (Member # 5492) on :
We didn't have fireflies where I grew up (Utah), but did you know that if you douse a scorpion in alcohol and light it on fire, its tail glows purple?
Posted by Zemra (Member # 5706) on :
UofUlawguy you are evil man, Fireflies are beautiful and I miss seeing them. I grew up having them around for most of the summer. Glad you were able to see one.