Toads are one of the most maligned and benign creatures on the planet. To some people, toads are ugly, or else, they are to be feared. Reportedly, they give people warts. On the other side of the equation, they are princes, waiting to come to life with just a kiss. Now, if I ever have a granddaughter, I don’t believe I’ll be telling her THAT story. Kids will try anything, and the idea of her kissing a toad to prove the fairytale real or fake is … unacceptable.
When I was three years old, my parents sold the three story tenement building we lived in. They decided to build a brand new house at the more exclusive and undeveloped “North End.” Well, the house was built alright and there was sandy soil all around it. Guess what showed up? Toads! Little toads, medium size toads, big toads. I loved them all. They became my playmates. I decided that I loved them so much, I wanted to “keep them” in a box.
Nobody told me that was not such a good idea. Somewhere, I came up with a box, and in it, I put some little dish, containing water, and began to add toads. My big brother, (seven years older), was outraged that I should have been allowed to do such a thing, and one evening, shortly thereafter, he freed all the toads.
I was heartbroken. Stevie unloosed all “my” toads. Who knows, in the box there might even have been a “Prince in Waiting!”
To this day, I still like toads. I have a large ceramic toad that previously served as a salt shaker. In the garden, I stumbled upon the most massive toad I’ve ever seen, nestled down among the yellow Dyer’s Chamomile plants, where it had burrowed into the dirt one late autumn.
After the toad incident of my youth, I picked up another habit of catching bumble bees inside a jar. That went “well,” until I was stung. Other people must have been told by their mothers to do this, too, as the practice is mentioned in a song – “catch a bumble bee, inside a jar …”
That is my Ode to Toads and though it is not the Bee’s Knees, it is a Nod to a Time Barely Recalled.
Patricia Cummings
