SPRING THINGS: As excepted, spring peepers are out in full
voice:
George McCune wrote on Tuesday, “Last night, I was coming home
at about 9:30 p.m. I live in Marshburg. I head the peepers just
before the golf course.” (Pine Acres, of course.)
Gerry Miller over in Potter County also dropped us an e-line on
Tuesday: “We heard peepers Friday night @ 7:51 p.m. on Fishing
Creek. Enjoying red-winged blackbirds and robins, too!”
Speaking of robins, we got a note from Donald E. Carlson on
Wednesday writing to us from Punta Gorda, Fla.: “After 20 years in
Florida, I miss seeing the robins in the spring.”
We must admit, there’s something about seeing a robin or hearing
a flock of geese in the spring that is pretty cool. One’s
appreciation for such simple things is whetted by the harsh winter
months that precede them.
Valerie Meacham tells us she and her sister, Ann Gardner, heard
the peepers on Sunday in Port Allegany while they were visiting her
daughter. They were “really loud,” she reports.
Don Parrish, waterway patrolman in McKean County now living in
Beaver Falls, remembers an evening in the 1970s when he and his
son, Donn, were returning from a program in Beaver County.
“The tiny frogs were tuning up for the mating season and Donn
said, ‘Dad, listen to the crickets.’ I chuckled and replied, ‘Those
are spring peeper frogs! You’re taking biology in school and you
don’t know the difference between a frog and a cricket?’ He
answered, ‘They’re not teaching us the difference between a crick
and a croak!'”
Don also tells us, “Our friends Kathy and Ed Bigley of Eldred
recently visited us. At my request, they ‘fetched’ us some leeks
and Swedish Corv from Jack Bell’s Market in Kane. Old friend Jack
added his own personal touch by also sending a ‘greenie.’ For those
who don’t understand the jargon, a green bottle of Straub’s beer.
Thanks, friends, for evoking the memories!”
MORE SIGNS: Residents of Dennis Lane report that groundhogs are
out in full force this spring, frolicking in the yards, burrowing
under sheds, and generally wreaking havoc on the neighborhood. One
reported a woodchuck on her deck was the size of a Humvee! Another
resident has already seen a skunk, two groundhogs, several mice and
a frog.
