RobArt Penguin

Around where I live everyone is waiting for the big emergence of the 17 year cicadas. It’s part of life in this part of the Midwest. My first memory of the big event was high school. I would walk home from school and some sidewalks were completely covered with the little creatures. I had a friend who was a want-to-be mountain man who fancied living off the land. He claimed he picked them off the ground and popped them into his mouth. He said they tasted like chocolate. I’m sorry, but I will get my chocolate from Hershey’s or Mars. I was a young lawyer during the next emergence. My folks had many mature trees full of cicadas. Because I was also a scientist, I took some time to study the creatures emerging from the ground. I was amazed to discover the frequent occurrence of defects, nymphs that were unable to fully emerge from their shells or nymphs that emerged with distorted wings. It gave me an insight to the un-pretty side of nature. The next time of emergence, I was married with young children. We lived in an area that was farmland a few cicada cycles ago, so they had not penetrated our area. But we could her their deafening sound nearby. Cicadas fly and therefore migrate, so I expect more this year. Every day the news people say the emergence is about to start, but nothing so far. I have a little tree I want to cover, because it’s too small to withstand 17 years of nymphs feeding off of its roots. Next time they emerge I will be fairly old. I hope when that day comes, I won’t think eating a few is a good idea.