the wasp story...part two

When I was young, I took things literally

    If I was told, be sure the doors are closed tight, I did that.

    Aunty Kay and Uncle Jim had two cottages on Dewey Lake near Dowagiac Michigan.  From as early as I can remember, my family went there for two or three weeks every summer.

    I loved it.  Still do.  Nice sandy beach, quiet lake, great cottage neighbors.  I have not been there in years.

    My family stayed in one cottage while Kay and Jim occupied the other.  The cottage we stayed in was basically a square with a wrap around porch that covered the front and half the side facing Jim and Kay's cottage.

    I must have been about 8.  Maybe 9.

    I think my brother Denny was involved, but time has dulled the memory a little bit.  It could have been Carl, but I am pretty sure it was Denny.

   The conversation went something like this.

  Brother:  "You see that hornet's nest hanging from the roof at Uncle Jim's?"

  Me:  "It's huge.  Uncle Jim said stay away from it, he was going to knock it down this weekend and burn it."

  Brother.  "That's a long way off.  We could get stung.  I"m going to knock it down."

  Me.  "You'll get stung.  Don't do it."

  Brother.  "I'll be fine.  I'll use a broom, knock it down, then run inside.  Just make sure all the doors are shut tight."

    Now I did not think this was a great plan, but it was a plan.

    So I obeyed.  Then I sat on the screened porch and watched.

    He carefully approached the nest.  He may have had an oar in his hand, but it could have been a broom.  Both brothers were teens at this time, so naturally their thinking was a bit cloudy.

    With a giant swing, he hit the nest like a pinata then took off running for the back door.  

    Which I had dutifully shut tight.

    And locked.

   "What the hell?"  I heard as I watched him tugging futilely on the door.  "Who locked the damn door?"  The hornets were swarming in the air around the pinata, which had rolled in the middle of the cottages.

    Since I was the only person there, it was a question that didn't need answering, but I did anyway.

"I did," I yelled and raced toward the back door.

    When I got there, no one was there.

    But there was a yelling from the front door.

    "Who locked the damn door?  Let me in!"

    So I raced back to the front door and let him in.

    He was pretty red and pretty sweaty.  He may have had a welt or two....I don't remember.

    But I do remember one brother being really mad at me for a couple of days.

    It was about that time I learned the expression mad as a hornet can also apply to people.