I can hardly imagine having a complete childhood without an opportunity to muck around in a creek or at the edge of some other body of water. I spent hours upon hours catching crayfish, (I was nearly grown before I ever heard them called, "crawfish".) frogs, pollywogs, (tadpoles) turtles, and snakes. My friends and I also captured and/or studied a number of other critters such as water spiders, hellgrammites, mosquito larvae, dragon flies and so many others. It was hands-on biology/ecology or whatever. For us it was just fun. We had neighborhood contests to see how many garter snakes we could capture in an afternoon. My personal record was twenty-two. (They were all released after the official count.)

We had our local legends such as the one about the huge snapping turtle that ate an entire dog in one gulp. We also had the occasional visitor from some other place who swore that every snake was either a copperhead or a moccasin. We would just laugh because we knew all of the snakes around there on virtually a first name basis. There were no poisonous snakes for eighty miles in any direction.

When it came time to actually study biology in school, I felt like I was years ahead of many of my classmates. I feel very fortunate to have grown up in a place where a love of the world of nature had a chance to develop. And I am especially appreciative of a mother who never gave me a hard time about getting wet or muddy. To this day I can't get near a river bank, creek bed or seashore without wading in and digging around to see what I can find.

If you are reading this and have never ventured to the banks of a creek and turned over a flat rock or two - either in the water or near it, then I urge you to make plans to do so and take the kids along. I suspect they may teach you something.

Let's get MESSY!!