I don’t know why children are so fascinated with bugs, but they are. Maybe, because they see them as something amazing, something funny, or just something cute that's friendly and even smaller than they are.
It was July and I was visiting my daughter, Beth. Children were cheering and I looked out the kitchen window into the backyard to see why. There must have been a dozen kids out there all huddled around the slide on the swing set, waving their arms around and yelling.
They seemed to be having a great time with something and yet my four-year-old grandson, was on a swing crying. I went out there to see what was wrong.
I gave Colin a hug, and asked why he was crying. He sniffled and after wiping his nose on my T-shirt, he said, "We're having slug races, Gram, and my Sammy stopped racing. He won't go AT ALL, even if I poke him!
(sniffle-sniffle)
I went over to the slide (a metal slide) and I could see the problem right away. Sammy was so slow, because he was stuck to the hot slide.
I suggested to Colin that he should give Sammy a much needed rest and maybe he should go find another slug to race with. Colin thought it was a great idea.
While Colin ran off to search for another slug, I scraped Sammy's tiny fried body from the hot slide. This was just too precious not to save forever, so I wrote a little poem about it …
For Colin with love:
I Love Bugs
from Grammy
I love teeny tiny ants
and itchy bitsy fleas,
spiders, big and little,
and grouchy grumble bees,
butterflies that flutter by,
and beetles when they run
from marching caterpillars.
I think bugs are fun!
Skeeters like to bite me,
but lightning bugs, they don’t,
and flies that get inside the house
could bite, but they won’t.
Silly racing centipedes
and slow and slimy slugs
are my very special favorites.
I love bugs!
***
Colin loved the poem. He’s in college now and the days of slug races on slides are well in the past now.