Singing Locusts and Peeing Toads

I stepped out of our cool, climate controlled Orlando hotel room, just to be taken back to my childhood.  Stepping out into the warm, humid night air I heard the clicking and humming noises of thousands of crickets and locusts.  It immediately took me back to those warm summer nights I enjoyed while growing up in Tennessee. 

The only thing I was missing were lightning bugs (some call them fire flies) dancing around just above the tall grass.

I walked down the sidewalk and felt something squishy under my foot.  It was too dark to see it clearly.  I thought it was a piece of landscaping back.  After focusing my eyes more intently I realized it was a large toad frog.  I then saw it clearly sitting in it’s on urine down on the sidewalk.  I nudged it and it hopped away, evidently okay.  I remember catching these things as kids and having them pee in our hands.  The saying was toad pee causes warts.

Having lived in the mountain west for the last half of my life, I realized I miss those fun things about summer nights