Getting Stung

I was watching The Jay Leno Show on late night TV and Dakota Fanning now almost 15 mentioned that she has never been stung by bees ever in her life even during the making of her latest movie "The Secret Life of Bees".

It struck me how different people's lives are today. When I grew up in the 1950s every boy I knew had been stung by bees, hornets, you name it multiple times.

In fact one of my first memories is of being stung by hornets when I was 4 years old walking from my grandfather's 2 1/2 acres of cherry and apple trees and berries in Lake Forest Park Washington and getting stung by hornets. He heard me screaming and came running and poured gasoline on the nest and burned them all up while I watched. My Grandad was my best friend that day.

The next time I remember getting stung was when I was about 8 years old. I was in the attic of our house working on electrical stuff with my Dad when a hornet got underneath my T-shirt and kept repeatedly stinging me. I started to run for the exit. My Dad grabbed my T-shirt or I would have run out into the air 2 stories up and died. He smashed the hornet on my chest and then reached in and pulled the dead thing out. He had saved my young life.

The next time I remember my friends and I were gathering boughs for a school play in the forest. One of us threw a hatchet into an old stump but there happened to be a bees nest in it unbeknownst to us and we 5 were all attacked by bees. I was sick for a couple of days because I got about 5 stings on the sides of my head. Luckily, none of us were allergic to bee stings like some people.

I learned to mix baking soda with a little water to get the poison out. Later still I learned how to suck the poison out with my mouth even though it can make your tongue numb or hurt for a while. But if you spit the poison out after sucking it out the sting hurts a lot less and won't make one sick(as long as one isn't allergic to stings).

Hornets, bees and other things that sting like horseflies all take some getting used to. If you get stung enough because you live in or near nature you learn over time how to coexist with stinging things. If not, you either live somewhere else or you learn how to burn up nests with gasoline or kerosene. Stinging things have their place in nature. Humans are only one factor in nature so wherever possible leave stinging things be. However, even I don't put up with rattlesnakes or black widow spiders if they are near or in where I'm staying. If bees, or hornets leave me alone then I leave them alone.

One of the biggest things is fear. Bees and hornets can smell fear and they will sting if they smell your fear. I think this is because things that fear them kill them so it's only natural to attack something before it can attack them.