Did someone say earwig? As a lifetime Marylander, I amaze myself each summer with my selective memory on two topics. Humidity and earwigs. Both are Maryland mainstays. Both are hideous. Both I've experienced for 57 summers and yet each year I seem surprised at the first blast of humid air and the first sighting of the creepy earwig. If you are fortunate enough not to have encountered earwigs in your home, then let me describe one to you.

An earwig is an insect of the order Dermaptera. The literature on the small "pincher bug" relates that the insect does not carry disease or otherwise harm humans or animals. This is true as far as I have observed.

But the literature does not describe how disgusting it is to find an earwig in your bowl of cereal. Nowhere in the literature on these summer bugs is there mention of lifting up a clay flower pot to discover hundreds of the creepy things beneath.

There are all sorts of common old wives tales about the earwig burrowing into brains or ear canals. The late writer and director Rod Serling is known to have devoted an episode of the telelvision series "Night Gallery" to the eerie premise of the earwig phenomenon.

I think the first time I really saw an earwig was in Cape Cod. My sister who was our hostess there, described the earwig with great detail and made mention that the small bug enjoys dark, moist spots. The summer of 1988 was an unusually hot one in West Friendship. I recall this with great clarity because our family held a huge family reunion here that year. It was so hot that July day that my husband actually hosed down our gravel driveway to avoid the kick up of dust. Earwigs were present.

Well enough about the travails of humidity and earwigs. But please feel free to e-mail me your experiences with the ubiquitous bug.

Two locals have just been published in noteworthy magazines. West Friendship's Al McKegg has written a fanciful article for Bay Weekly titled "Who Owns this Bay?"

Gail Gee, of Fulton, has her garden peonies as "cover girls" in the March-April issue of The American Gardener. Gee admits that she learned gardening "by the seat of my pants." Her lush Friendship Pink and Ludovica varieties of peony are featured in the article.

The following two notices are worth repeating. Mark your calendar for a special event which is coming to the Glenelg United Methodist Church Saturday, June 21 at 7 p.m. Glenelg United Methodist is hosting the youth choir from the University United Methodist Church in Chapel Hill, N.C. The Chapel Hill youth will perform the popular musical "Godspell" for one night only.

No admission and a hearty invitation to all in the community to come out an enjoy the beautiful voices of the North Carolina group. Glenelg United Methodist Church member Whit Trovillion calls the event a "win-win for everyone, but I think we are getting the better deal."

The choir members will visit Glenelg en route from a performance in New York. A host of Glenelg Methodist parishioners are hosting the choir members for an overnight stay before they head back to Chapel Hill.

A series of day camp sessions are being held at the Living Heritage Farm Museum, in West Friendship, Monday and Wesnesday, June 23 and 25, June 30 and July 2.

Sponsored by the Howard County Antique Farm Machinery Club and held at West Friendship's Hebb House and surrounding campus, each session is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Children ages 7 to 11 are encouraged to join in the fun.

Children may attend one session or all four. Fees are $30 for just one day attendance or $55 for two day sessions.

The idyllic farm setting of Hebb House and the surrounding farm museum campus will be the backdrop for a camp which includes crafts and farm life activities.

Interested? Call 410-489-2345, e-mail info@farmheritage.org or go to the Web site at www.farmheritage.org. Early registration is suggested.

The simmering temperatures of June 7 did little to deter the fabulous wedding weekend for Gail and Larry Wilson's son, Spencer. Spencer and his new bride, Casey, enjoyed an outdoor ceremony which Gail described as "perfect."

The honeymooners were off to Aruba and Gail and Larry were ready to relax after months of preparation. Gail's daughter, Katie Wimbrow, traveled to Maryland from North Carolina to join in all the wedding celebrations.

The Class of 2008 included another graduate. Congratulations to young Grant Heidebricht, grandson of Judy and Paul Hoffman, who graduated from Tae Kwon Do class in early June.

user comments (0)