"Valuable Lessons"
By Ralph Moore (c)2004

Many years ago, when I was a youngster of about eight
years of age, I had a powerful learning experience...
one that I am sure I will never forget.

The year was 1959 and I was going about the business of
growing up on the east side of Indianapolis, Indiana.

The summer sun was hot, life was good and my younger friend
Tom and I were "exploring". I remember that we were well
into the summer that year and had exhausted all of our usual
games and adventures.

We were looking for something new.

Now in those days, the term "terrorist" generally referred
to the older neighborhood kids that seemed to derive great
pleasure from testing the limits of our parents.

And for the most part, the biggest fear we had was from
breaking some new rule, designed by our parents (we were
sure) for the specific purpose of keeping us from "having
fun".

We were however, allowed to wander all over a pretty large
area of our neighborhood on a daily basis, as long as we
"stayed out of trouble" and didn't "pester everyone to
death".

Earlier that morning and unknown to me, Tom had made an
excellent discovery. At the end of our street lived an
older couple who had pear trees. The pears were ripe,
and in one of the trees was a nest.

A BIG nest! Since we had never seen anything like it, we
weren't exactly sure what it was. All we knew was that
there seemed to be a lot of activity around the nest and
an interesting "hum" coming from the general direction of
our discovery.

Since my mother was a school teacher, we decided that she
just might be smart enough to know what we had found, so we
headed back to my house to test that theory.

Well, as soon as we started describing our new find to her,
mom wasted no time in creating another of those new rules.

I remember her telling us that it was probably a wasp or
hornets nest and we better keep away from it or we would
probably be very sorry. Under no circumstances were we to
go anywhere near that nest!

Now being as young and inexperienced as we were, we had yet
to understand the wisdom in just accepting certain rules
at their face value. Besides, as I said before... we were
bored.

In less time than you could fry an egg, Tom and I were once
again headed back to that pear tree. One way or another, we
were going to have us a brand new adventure and learn all
about bees, and nests and why some of them "hum".

Now seeing as how we were "forbidden" from going anywhere
near "that nest", we decided that the best course of action
was to compromise.

I guess we figured that we could stay far enough away
from the nest and still experiment safely with the help of
a well-aimed "missile" or two.

Unfortunately, even at that tender age I was a pretty fair
shot with a rock. Tom wasn't bad either.

I still don't know to this day which one of us hit the nest,
but I remember well the "shock and awe" of finding myself
in sudden pain and surrounded by hundreds of tiny little
angry flying insects.

That pear tree was about two city blocks from my house, and
I bet I set a new world "land speed record" for getting
home in a hurry.

I learned a few valuable lessons that day. Those little
black and yellow flying insects are called "yellow-jackets",
and I discovered that pain can come in very small packages.

Baking soda is great for removing the poison from a bee
sting, but nothing can come close to a Mother's love.

Sometimes rules are for our own good, no matter how bored
we may be. And once in a while "Mother knows best"!

On that sunny summer day so long ago, I may not have learned
all that there is to know about pear trees, nests and bees,
but I guarantee you from that moment on I learned to listen
a lot more carefully to whatever my mother had to say.

Thanks Mom, for all of the valuable lessons!