Lip Sewer

I'll be you are wondering what the heck that is?


photo: From the blog, Hilton Pond

These insects called cicadas make an interesting noise. It almost would sound like an odd sewing machine.  Unless it is a hatching of the Periodical Cicadas which are positively annoying and incredibly loud.  I recall one such time when we visited Illinois during one 'hatching'.  The boys were young and we visited Great Grandpa Ed.  He provided the boys with bags and the boys gathered cicadas to feed to their chickens on the farm.
That year the noise in Northbrook was deafening.  You couldn't walk through the yard without stepping on them and they even plugged up lawn mowers.


The ones I hear in the woods now are called Dog Day Cicadas or Summer Cicadas.

The point is, you can hear them but rarely see them especially in my wooded area.  As a kid my Grandmother would point out the buzzing of the Cicada and quietly say to us as if sharing a huge secret.

"Those are Lip Sewers," she'd day.  "If you are caught cussing within their ear shot, they will come flying out of the woods and immediately sew your lips shut."

Well, I certainly wasn't going to come to the supper table after playing outside with my lips sewed shut.  Grandma would know I was cussing. 

I grew older and maybe a bit wiser.  I realized that Grandma had pulled a fast one over on me.

Yesterday afternoon while out with Morris we listened to the Cicadas.  I wagged my finger at the dog sternly and told him, "Morris! No cussing!"  He simply tipped his head and gave me that Jack Russell grin of his.

Of course, at the time he was sitting on his beloved Allis Chalmers Tractor.