I totally feel your Florida pain, Hec. I once sat on a red ant hill when I was a baby, and a bunch of the ants got in my diaper. I must've been two, tops, but I remember it.

I'd be running around barefoot, standing in some field and then...Aiyeee! I'm on an anthill and they're all up my legs.

One learned to quickly run into the house, hop in the tub and wash them off.

Once my friends shut me in a foot-locker out on the lawn, and ants got in. That was a nightmare experience. Much pounding and screaming from the inside. Good times, good times... t /Bill McNeil

One learned to quickly run into the house, hop in the tub and wash them off.

This is cracking me up because it's so true. Also, why didn't we ever wear shoes? My mom had to force me to wear shoes once we moved to NY, and even then, she caught me with one bare foot out the door during our first snowstorm.

Also, why didn't we ever wear shoes?

Too hot and humid.

You should've seen the incredulous looks on the faces of my preppy college friends when I described people going to the mall in a bikini and high heels.

Also: nobody needs red ants in their diaper.

Do you remember when that law passed saying you couldn't sell things while wearing a thong if you weren't on the beach?

Do you remember when that law passed saying you couldn't sell things while wearing a thong if you weren't on the beach?

After my time, but that sounds very So. Florida.

My San Francisco son flipped out when exposed to the bug-life in Georgia. It was Not On.

Or rather, we Stayed Indoors.

However, I miss the warm, caressing air of nights in Miami.

The night air in San Francisco is caressing like the cold hand of death.

The thong girls were becoming a traffic hazard. It would've been the late '80s.

I don't want to live there again, but I do miss Miami sometimes. And often that is at night, because yeah, nights in CA are COLD.

I would happily put up with the mosquitos again for the love of the lightning bugs.

why didn't we ever wear shoes?

So we didn't have to. I know it was a concious decision on my part, when it started to get warm out in the spring, to take off my shoes and socks when I reached the last continuous sidewalk on the route home from school. By the time it got hot I had sufficient callouses on my feet for walking on the blacktop without unbearable pain.

I don't want to live there again, but I do miss Miami sometimes. And often that is at night, because yeah, nights in CA are COLD.

I even had to turn on my heat for an hour or so when I got home.

(Sorry, I feel strongly on this.)

It's just slang. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Re: bites & stings, I am the sort of person who swells up so badly when bitten that it looks like my skin is about to burst and tiny aliens are about to emerge fully formed and demanding equal representation. In fact, when I was camping in Alaska and had slathered myself in DEET, taking years off my and the planet's life (sorry, planet) I failed to slather my forehead, which was under my bandana (remember when I used to wear that bandana like my stor?).

I ended up looking like a Klingon. Seriously, I was mocked for weeks. It was bad. So I was relieved when the yellowjacket sting didn't actually kill me and just hurt like the dickens.

Not fond of horsefly bites, either.

And of course, the SO had his bout with a spider bite that rendered him helpless with part of his foot swollen the size of a softball and so painful he was crawling down the hallway to get to the bathroom so he could keep his foot elevated.

You're thinking to yourselves, boy am I lucky I don't live in the crazy southwest desert like him, but no, he was bitten while doing treehouse camp in Indiana.

You're thinking to yourselves, boy am I lucky I don't live in the crazy southwest desert like him, but no, he was bitten while doing treehouse camp in Indiana.

I'm mainly thinking, I'm glad I live in Australia. Sure we have the world's most venomous snake, spider (by some measures), jellyfish, invertebrate, creature, octopus, fish and mammal, and stinging ants that can send someone into anaphylactic shock, but we don't have killer bees, dammit, and that counts for something.