Each summer as we were growing up, Dale and I would go out in the country and spend some time with Mama and Papa Tidwell. There was a boy, Freddie Lee, who lived in Logan, Alabama and he was our summertime friend.
Back in those days, if you didn’t have enough boys for a ball team you had to find something else to do to entertain yourself. A big mimosa tree was in full bloom and it attracted a lot of hummingbirds as well as bumblebees. So, we began to try to catch a hummingbird. We would try and miss, try and miss, then all of a sudden, Freddie Lee shouted, “I’ve caught one, I’ve caught a hummingbird!”
Dale ran over to Freddie Lee to see his catch. About that time, the bumblebee let Freddie Lee know that it wasn’t a hummingbird that he had caught. Freddie Lee screamed out, “Oh, oh, I’ve caught a bumblebee; boy does it hurt!”
Dale and I went with Freddie Lee to be doctored up for his bee sting. Someone had said tobacco juice is the best thing for bee stings. I think they were telling us that just as a prank.
Anyway, we didn’t know anyone who was chewing tobacco. Mama Tidwell put some Rosebud salve on him and maybe it helped.
Needless to say, we gave up catching hummingbirds. Freddie Lee after the fact, Dale and I having been pre-warned.
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