Day Trippin’

A question sends me back in time — to my early ‘beekeeper’ days

Time travel was not on my agenda for the day. Yet, because of six unexpected words, there I was, thrown back into time without any advance notice.

One minute I was in my car, driving down the street towards home. In the mere seconds it took to turn one corner, I was thousands of miles away, smack dab in the middle of the 1960s, climbing trees and catching bees.

What sent this Texas gal back to a summer in the past, climbing trees instead of taking the mocha Frappuccino back home to the party that was waiting for it?

It was all because of one little question. I sat in line at 151 Coffee waiting for a cold, frosty drink that wasn’t even for me. The young girl waiting to deliver the drink had a unique conversation starter as we waited.

“Here’s the question of the day. What was your favorite childhood game?”

The query took me by surprise. My mind raced through several possibilities of games I played as a youngster. But none were my favorites. I replied with the first fun activity that crossed my mind.

“Climbing trees and catching bees.”

Growing up in Glendora, California, we lived next door to two elderly ladies — Bea and Pauline. They were housebound and never outside. But they had a huge yard filled with delightful plants and trees. We three youngsters were allowed to play in their yard. All it took was a quick dash through the walkway in the hedge between our houses and I was in a backyard filled with delightful nooks and crannies that I could explore to my heart’s content. I spent hours in their yard communing with nature, albeit I never thought of it in that way at the time.

Two magnificent orange trees graced the north side of the house, leftovers from the early citrus groves. I spent many an afternoon climbing up the trees, whiling away the day perched on a sturdy branch. Bees swarmed both trees. They must have known I didn’t intend any harm. They never stung me.

One summer I received a plastic terrarium for a birthday gift. Sadly, no animals came with it. So, I filled it with my own ‘pets’. First, I filled it with some small branches from the orange tree, ones filled with fragrant blossoms. Then I started trapping some of the bees from the orange tree.

Alas, my early attempt at becoming a beekeeper was thwarted.

One afternoon, my mom left us with a babysitter. For what reason, I have no idea. We didn’t often have a babysitter, but on the few rare occasions we did, it was Kay Oliver, a teenager from our church.

Kay, being older and wiser, and oh, so responsible as a babysitter, thought that me collecting bees in a terrarium was dangerous.

She committed an heinous act. She opened the lid and let all my pet bees escape back into the wild.

I was furious.

So, I did the only thing I could think to do to obtain justice.

As she headed in my direction, most likely trying to appease my offended sensibilities, I opened the waist high hose bib that was in the center of the yard, and I drenched her!

Paybacks, Kay Oliver!

Over fifty years later, as this memory pulls me back into time and I’m day trippin’ back to childhood, do I feel bad about my reaction?

Not really.

Okay, maybe a tiny bit.

As I shake my head and ease myself back into current time, a part of me feels a teensy bit bad, coming from the older, more mature grandmother that I’ve become in the years since. But that slice of youth that remains ever a young child, even though she’s not present all the time, still feels fully justified in what I did.

Maybe it’s time to go look for a good tree to climb. I foresee more time traveling trips in my future. With or without the bees.