How to Fly a June Bug

Ugly little beast, isn't it? I didn't think so when I was a little fellow. We had two really great apple trees in our yard that produced tons of yellow "early June" apples. At least that's what we called them. They made the best fried apples you ever sunk a tooth in. They were great as pies, too. During the summer mom would preserve many jars of the apples so we had them year-round. I haven't seen apples like those since I was a kid and the last time I was home I drove by the old house. The apple trees were gone. What a shame.

The little June bug in the picture loved those apples, too. When the apples were ripe there were lots of bugs flying around and they were very easy to catch. I'm sure PETA would be after me now if I was still doing it, but we used to fly the June bugs. It sounds cruel, and may have been, but a little boy in WVa in the fifties didn't know about those things.

We would catch the bugs and tie thread around their back leg. It was kind of like having a miniature kite that didn't require wind. The June bug would take off and fly in circles while we would hold the other end of the thread. We had to treat them nice and not fly them too often or they would just lie there. So, we usually had several and at night would put each of them on an apple and tie them down so they didn't fly away. They ate the apple at night and were ready to go again in the morning.

They were only around for a few weeks but were fun for the few days we flew them. Little boys easily get bored. At least this one did. There was always something else to do in the summer days in WVa after the June bugs left.