Those Were Special Worms

My oldest nephew is 9 months younger than me.  He has been more like a brother to me than a nephew.  He spent a few summers with us.  He was far more adventurous than I was.   We always seem to get ourselves into some kind adventure.  I am going to try to not incriminate anyone in this blog, but some of the things we did weren't always what we were supposed to be doing.  We never did hurt anyone too badly or burn anything down!

For entertainment in the summer, we would get out my dad's golf clubs and whiffle golf balls.  We didn't want to break any windows! We hit the balls around quite often.  We also liked to hit birdies over the fence -our makeshift badminton net.  And we loved to dig holes to China in the back of the garden till mom got us a "sand box" to dig in.  It was more of an old tractor tire with dirt in it. But it worked for us.

We, of course, needed money.  Our plan was to sell worms to the fisherman.  Mom would water the lawn in the day so at night we could go out and catch the night crawlers.  We caught a lot, and made a lot of money.  We first put a sign in the yard.  We had some sales, but not what we had hoped for.  We went down and talked to the local tackle shop about selling our worms to them.   We got a lot more sales with them.  The tackle shop introduced us to a guy who would buy the worms by the pound.  We made a lot of money selling our worms that way.  We couldn't seem to get enough worms in our yard and the neighbor's yard.  So we started going down to the church and getting worms there.  For kids, we did very well selling our worms.

One night, I had a mishap with a worm that is still to this day burned into my mind.  We had gone over to the church to get worms.  I patiently waited for the worms to come up.  Had my flashlight, which of course had red cellophane over the light so the worms couldn't see the light.  I spotted a worm, reached down, grabbed it and it screamed at me.  I know you are thinking worms cannot scream.  But it did.  I then screamed, jumped back and ran.  My mom and nephew thought I was crazy.  But really it did scream.  No longer would I go worming at the church.  Those were special worms.  Worms with vocal cords.  I stuck to worming at home or at the neighbors.  Fortunately the summer was coming to an end, and it didn't put too big of a dent into the money we were making.

I don't really remember what we used our money for.  I'm sure candy.  I don't think what we were buying with the money was the important part.  It was the actual making of the money.  We loved to sit around in the day and discuss how we were going to do this differently that we could get more worms.  I think the red cellophane was something the guy at the tackle shop told us about, and it seemed to help.  Worming brought my nephew and I closer.  It was something we worked together for.

When I look back to the summers spent at home, I recall worming, baseball, wading pools, sunflower seeds and sweet iced tea.  Iced tea has been a part of my life as long as I can remember.  I'm even drinking it right now.  However, I should be drinking something warm.  It has rained, snowed, and sleeted for over 24 hours. I am a little bit chilled.  A few years ago I discovered a recipe for Spiced Cider.  It's a great comforting warm drink.  I hope you like it as much as I do.

Spiced Cider
1 gallon apple cider
2 cups orange juice
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp whole cloves
6 sticks cinnamon

Combine all ingredients in a large pot.  Stir until brown sugar is dissolved.  Bring to a boil and reduce heat.  Simmer for 15 minutes.  Strain cinnamon sticks and whole cloves out.  Serve in mugs.