Growing Up
Tales About Life on the Lake

An excerpt entitled
"Sirens of Spring Or Why I Don't Eat Frog Legs"

I believe everyone loves spring. Some love it because it signals the end of winter, others because it signals the beginning of the end of another school year. Some like it for the sounds, others the smells, and still others simple like the way the air feels. Even people who love a brisk winter and hate the stifling heat of summer enjoy the change of seasons.

There is a disagreement, however, on exactly when spring starts. Some people say that the first really warm, sunny day signifies the end of winter; others say that the last frost signifies the first of spring. The calendar can't even say for sure; some years, it's March 21, and other years it's the twentieth or twenty-second.

I let the frogs tell me.

I have always liked frogs. Some of my earliest and best memories are of frog hunting at Lake Martin. All of us youngsters loved frog hunting, even the girls, and trying to catch as many as possible was a nightly ritual.

The frogs would begin to call just before dark. The first long, drawn-out nasal "waaah" was a siren to us. When that alarm went off, all previous priorities fell behind the new number one--being the first to get a flashlight.

The flashlights were kept on a bookcase shelf, but unlike the books, they never got the chance to gather dust. Instead this sacred spot became the scene of nightly chaos as a mass of children's arms and legs stuck out wildly from a ball of young humanity that scrambled and wriggled towards the precious frog-finders. I always got one, not because I was the biggest, strongest or oldest, (in fact, I was the smallest, weakest and youngest) but because my parents owned the cabin. Rank has it privileges and vice versa.

I always got involved in the scramble, though, because it was excitement incarnate, and because I had to make sure that my best friend Jimbo got a flashlight too. Otherwise, some of the girls might catch more frogs than him. Besides, I didn't want to have to share, which was always a possibility if you didn't grab one in time.

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