memories of a lost world of the natural world forever gone

Wed Jul 11, 2018

i grew up in a suburb that prior to my moving there in late 70s was most likely undeveloped land, farmland, fields

there were still farms not too far from where my house and neighborhood was. there was a lot of construction of new houses being built.

the catholic elementary school at that time was adjacent a large farm field,

as a kid not too far from walking distance was a seasonal pond

in the early spring the spring rains would cause the pond to be filled with life giving water.

it had cat tails



i visited this pond as a young elementary school student

there are snails everywhere



there were fairy shrimp which i tried hard to capture but couldn't



they were like sea monkeys but much bigger and quicker

it had tadpoles



i saw small fish

but my fav creature was the crayfish



i thought then and now crayfish are cool looking bonsai lobsters

it was a good size pool of water, but over the summer it dried up completely. not sure what the crayfish did

i liked turning over rocks and sometimes i saw a crayfish and attempt to capture it with my bare hands. i would keep them as pets

i heard sounds of other animals but i never saw them with my eyes, not sure if it was birds or raccoons or muskrats

it had some smell of decomposing plant material, kinda swampy smell when there was water but i didn't care at the time, i was mostly interested in capturing crayfish

the pond and its life returned on a yearly basis in the late 70s and early 80s

by middle 80s real estate developers were pouring concrete and bulldozing and leveling this field.  then poured asphalt and turned into a parking lot adjacent to several stores, including a children's day care and a burger king strip mall.

so today what was a pond filled with natural life and crayfish, is now a hot black top asphalt parking lot, and the life it once had is forever lost.

so it went in the late 70s and early 80s of my early childhood

from this




to this



children born after the 80s will never know this area like i did when it was pristine nature

also during this time

i grew up watching spectreman



gori's chief complaint was the human race was destroying planet earth with pollution and litter

i saw with my own eyes he's right. beautiful undeveloped land was bulldozed and paved.

strictly speaking someone, i don't know who, owned that land, so you could say i was trespassing on private property, though there wasn't anything or anyone enforcing it.

i was a kid though so.

of course reading about how little girls get abducted and murdered i kinda am amazed i wasn't abducted and murdered to.

if i were a girl would i have been snatched and raped?

but if i were a little girl would i have an interest in visiting this field to capture crayfish with my bare hands, turning over logs to look for toads? i could never capture a lizard, too fast.

seeing this city using google map i can see all the original land, including the original farmland has been developed with houses and private businesses.