Earwigs are gone but acorns abound

Not only the Old Men of the Mountain can’t beat this weather with a stick we are having in the Northeast, but everyone can get on the bandwagon and not beat this weather with a stick. On Nov. 3, the Old Men of the Mountain met at the Chuck Wagon Diner in Princetown.

This scribe will continue about the weather because getting out of the vehicle in the parking lot of the Chuck Wagon’s parking lot was surreal. The sunrise, the feel in the air, did not seem right; this scribe felt he was someplace else; this is November?

The OFs gave the waitress at the Chuck Wagon a break because there were not many OFs at the breakfast.

One has pneumonia but is now on the upside; four have just returned from Las Vegas; one is in Aruba; three were on the wrong time, and just couldn’t get up, so the drivers went on, leaving them home; two were working the polls; one was running for election and was working hard; one was on a trip with the kids; and one was at the doctor’s office after a tick decided this OF was a good place to call home.

As is often mentioned the OFs are old but do have places to go, people to see, and things to do. Only at the breakfast are most of the OFs sedentary.

Where have all the earwigs gone?

A new topic for the OFs at the breakfast was bugs.

Not only have the OFs noticed a decline in wildlife (like deer, rabbits, raccoons, porcupines, turkeys, and some birds and bats), the OFs have noticed that some bugs seem to have vanished, like earwigs.

Fifteen to 20 years ago, the OFs never saw an earwig, let alone knew what that nasty-looking bug was, and then all of a sudden they were here. Turn over a piece of wood, lift up a flowerpot, pick up the water dish for the dog outside and there they were, scurrying all over the place.

Now they seem to have gone for the most part. This year, nary a one. But these, unlike the wild animals, have been replaced with others like the box elder, and the stink bug.

Now where did they come from? The OFs wonder, if they have been here all the time, where have they been hiding? Particularly the stink bug, that thing is aptly named. Squash one of those bugs and you will know it.

Plenty of nuts

This is also a year the OFs notice that many trees have an abundance of fruits and nuts and even pine cones. One OF reported that his oak tree has the lawn so covered with acorns it is like walking on marbles.

Then another OF said that on his walks in the woods he has noticed that under one oak tree it would be like the other OF said, but under one right next to the first tree, practically nothing is there, hardly even one acorn. This OF said he thought this was odd.

The hickory nuts from the hickory trees are also falling from the trees like rain. Hickory nuts are all over the ground like the acorns.

One OF thought it has been a different year. The trees changed color in our area very late, by almost two weeks.

Another OF threw in the comment that the tour buses that bring people to see the color were going to miss it; the leaves would still be green. Now, instead of frost on the pumpkins, the dumb things are still growing.

“That is not entirely true,” one OF said. “We have had a few killing frosts.”

“Yeah, only in the really open areas,” another OF said.

With his plants, he noticed that, if the plants had any kind of protection at all, they are still green, and the grass is still growing.

“We are going to pay for this,” an OF said.

All the OFs thought this OF was right.

Tough jobs

The OFs talked about the current dilemma of being a police officer. One OF thought that the press and most all of the media are presenting the news in such a fashion that it is painting all police officers with the same brush as the few bad ones.

Many people forget, the OFs thought, that police officers deal with the dregs of society day in and day out and are on edge from the time they go to work until they go home. It takes a certain type of person to be a police officer, or to work in a nursing home, or even to work in a children’s hospital where many are dying of cancer and other diseases.

One OF said, “Give me a shovel and let me dig a ditch because I don’t think I could do these other jobs.”

Those OFs who were still around and had the opportunity to enjoy a beautiful beginning of a beautiful day and started it out by heading to the Chuck Wagon in Princetown were: Robie Osterman, George Washburn, Bill Lichliter, (whose name was entered incorrectly last week; this was to protect the innocent) Roger Shafer, Henry Whitt, Gerry Irwin, Wayne Gaul, Harold Guest, Bob Fink, Bob Benninger, Ted Willsey, Mike Willsey, Elwood Vanderbilt, Gerry Chartier, Harold Grippen, and me.