Venus Fly Traps, Squirrel Traps, and Other Motherly Distractions

My mother had a strange gift of coming up with things to keep her four children distracted. When we got too rowdy or too much kid-like, she had a way to get us corralled and cooperative. She had tricks to suck us in. She was a pied-piper of wizardry.

As a child I remember the front screen door to our house always opening and closing with a loud whoop! The Summers especially were the times when we children would be in and out, in and out, in and out. Momma would hate that we let the flies in. She kept a fly swatter or a rolled newspaper close at all times.

We children were not as annoyed by the flies, but as my mother grew more annoyed, the flies became out focus as well. We didn't think to make the screen door our focus and just stop all the in and out and back and forth. We became fly hunters. It didn't help that we watched Kung Fu and also attempted to catch the flies with two sticks or our hands as an impossible distraction from the task of ridding ourselves of the flies.

Flies would land on a half eaten sandwich and whoop! Flies would be followed by little eyes and traced to the blinds, and whoop! Flies would buzz about heads and land on someone's arm, and whoop!

My mother came home one day with a Venus Fly Trap plant. Well we had never seen such a thing. She placed it in the den on a small table near a window so it could get some light. The plant had these spikes as a mouth that were clamped closed. We asked momma what the heck it was. She said it was a plant that ate the flies. She explained just what this Venus Fly Trap did and how it did it. We were fascinated. We sat on the floor as she explained. We put our open palms under our chins and listened intently. We oooo and ooohhhed!

She told us to be patient and wait for flies. We would wait and wait and wait and wait. We would open the back door to make sure flies would know how to get in the house. We were eager to see how this contraption worked. Finally one day a fly got to buzzing around and we got a chance to actually see it. This plant slowly began to open its jowls as if it were yawning. The fly buzzed and buzzed and eventually landed exactly where its life would end. The Trap snapped closed. The fly buzzed around inside these green jaws and we just marveled. 

After the initial charm wore off, we returned to our usually play. I don't remember what happened to that Venus Fly Trap. I have never wanted to get one in my adult life. I've never been that bothered by flies or children. I was not called to childlessness not to breeding.

Later on during one particular summer or another, momma would show us how to trap a squirrel under a box. She gathered us around and led us outdoors. We lived in this craftsman house where the rear was at least 8 feet higher than the front of the house, so it made for a great hunter's cove.

She said we were going to run a string from the window and tie it to a strong stick. We did. We tied it to a pecan stick that was about 10 inches long. She had us prop a 2 by 2 box up and put bread crumbs down under the box. She ushered us back into the den and she had us peer out the window looking down on the area where the box stood unassumingly.

We were to keep vigilant guard over the box and stand look out for any and all critters that ventured near. She said when the squirrel gets under the box, we were to yank the stick and the trap would spring and the squirrel would be under the box. She had us gripped with expectation. We sat in that window for at least 4 hours waiting for the unwitting prey to spring our trap.

Finally a squirrel approached and entered the area. We all began to sweat and chatter. Someone told someone else to be quiet. We all hushed up a bit. We all gave this instruction or that instruction. We really were a team, the four of us. The time had come and we all yanked the string. That squirrel was fast as al get out and beat the trap. She all celebrated how close we came. We poured out the house and own the 8 steps to set the trap again. Then we all ran back to our foxhole laying in wait for the next unwitting squirrel to get close enough for capture.

Now where was momma during all this waiting and resetting? She was no where to be found. Like a magician, she had disappeared. She set us to task and poooffff!

Yes, from button yo-yos, to whittling, to the task of kissing our elbows, my mother had a mind that was full of all sorts of things a kid could latch on to having nothing to do with feeding a body. She fed our minds and our curiosities. God stayed up and always active in her head regarding us, her children.