Releasing Butterflies and Dragonflies!!!

Written By: Gwen Sciora

Ah ….The sweaty, sweaty   days of summer camp !!!   

 The kids just called me  “Miss GWENNNNNN!”    

They would bring me stuff. Critters.

“Come see the praying mantis!!!! “

“ We found a  frog.”
 ” We brought you a Caterpillar!!!! ” 

I was at camp , with JBJ, Ms. Tyler and Dr. Hank Med. …..You could have  been there too if you can afford to send your kids to camp in the Hamptons.

         A typical day was teaching kids about frogs, pollution or caterpillars. Sometimes a kid licked a fish tank… and then they cried. I can’t tell you why.   You never knew what to expect from little kids.

In trying to explain how an oil  spill might affect them , I asked them to raise their hands if they ate clams, lobster , etc……..  I think a 4 year old asked me : ”Is Caviar  a fish??”   

   Now  I’m not sure what world you live in , but  speaking as a 4 year old once.. I would not have had or known what caviar was at that age. I’m currently 47 years old  and know what caviar  is but I still have never had any caviar. Nor do I plan to….Just in case you don’t know why I find this story amusing.

  

 They brought me bugs and frogs. We hatched  a  butterfly .

It was black and blue. We released the butterfly by the gym . There was empty land back at the time. Now there are several  big houses off Cody Way.

          We were all crazy excited and not scared when a bat came to roost in a classroom.

We got the leftovers from the local farmer’s market on Scuttle Hole Road by the Ark Project. Look for the giant sculptures that remind me of M&Ms.. We brought the discards back to  feed the goats, the pigs….the rabbits. It depended on what was in the discard bin that day.

 My son walked babydoll sheep .One time I texted Ms Karen to tell her that the donkey was in the front of the school taking himself for a walk . Since I texted the wrong Karen, my friend from 3rd grade was very confused by “Come get the donkey from the parking lot” .

One time at the end of the day we would talk to the parents at the playground.

A parent told me that her family had been at the beach and some people nearby were getting upset by the dragonflies. She said that her child told them not to be afraid because they eat mosquitoes. Guess who taught ‘em that??

That is better than the time I  tried to teach them about eggs and chickens…

  ” Where does the egg come from ? ”  ( I was holding up plastic Easter eggs and  referring to  the shell)

  Of course the kids said  “THE CHICKEN’S BUTT!”……

 

 

    On a day when I tried to explain about the skeleton, I held up a life size fold out from a book .

I asked if they could tell me if  the skeleton was a  boy or a girl …It went something like this:

  “It’s a boy! EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!”

“ NO , Boys and girls that is not what you think it is . That’s a coccyx bone. “

Oy……..Smacks self in head. What was I thinking ? They are 4 years old. 

I can imagine the ride home in the Porsche that day…    ”MOM!!!!     MS. Gwen showed us a picture book with a boy skeleton. He had a …****  sick bone!   ….”    uh  oh….

 

Yes it was over a hundred miles a day for me and my 2 sweaty kids  to drive there and back without a decent working A/C.   I did it because I wanted to spent summers with my kids and I still had to work .Some things I still can’t afford to do as a single parent.

Some stuff fell off my  ” time machine”   .A heat shield? Or was it a  flux capacitor?   In reality  my “time machine”  is a 1999 Mitsubishi Montero Sport…with stickers and magnets all over the back …   Go ask JBJ…… aka  Jon Bon Jovi or his son Romeo.

Surely one of them will remember the Science lady, Miss Gwen ,  across the hall from the Piggies Classroom in Bridgehampton..off Butter Lane… Go ahead , ask him…… He parked next to me.All the time .

I was the one with the Iguana in a birdcage. I have still have  friendships and  priceless memories because of that place.My son just thinks I’m the crazy lady who still loves Iguanas and her crappy old SUV.