Natural Wonders Revealed

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We were dirty the way little boys get when they stay outside all day. We kneeled side by side, staring intently at a small funnel-shaped depression in the sandy soil. I was the novice; he was my guide, and I was ready to be amazed.

 

My guide, Butch, was a childhood friend who, though we were both eight years old, seemed much more worldly than I. He had to be. He lived with his mother, an employee at the local dry cleaner, and his teenage sister. His father was gone a lot, I’m not sure why. I think he had a tough time finding work. They lived in a small, two-bedroom apartment that was one of a complex of single-story apartments less than half a mile from my house. The complex seemed to stretch for miles, and we had the run of it.

 

Even at age eight, Butch had plans. He loved Putt-Putt golf and dreamed of being a professional Putt-Putt golfer by age 16. It sounded do-able to me. He taught me how to scavenge for soft drink bottles to turn in for money at the nearby A&P grocery store. That was a revelation. But the best thing he taught me was how to “fish” for Doodle Bugs.

 

If you Google the Doodle Bug, you’ll find it’s the larval form of the Ant Lion. It’s a little creature with fierce jaws waiting at the bottom of a sand pit built for trapping unsuspecting ants. The pit is the funnel-shaped depression mentioned earlier. The soil around Butch’s apartments was ideal for Doodle Bugs.

 

“Do you want to fish for Doodle Bugs?” Butch asked. He didn’t have to ask twice. Straight away, he found a likely hole. He showed me how to break off the stalk of a common weed and slowly poke it down into the depression. In no time at all there was a slight movement of sand, and Butch yelled, “Got ‘im!” I pulled the stalk straight up with a Doodle Bug clamped tightly to the end of it. It should have made the cover of Field and Stream.

 

I read recently that the latest photos beamed back from the James Webb telescope reveal images of an area of space called Pandora’s Cluster. It’s really three giant clusters of galaxies combined—not planets, galaxies—and the photos show new details never seen. It’s a wonder. I can’t begin to fully appreciate this new capacity to see far into the outer reaches of space.

 

There’s no doubt that if we want to observe amazing wonders of the natural world, it is helpful to have the James Webb telescope at our disposal. But, sometimes, it’s enough simply to have a friend named Butch.


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