Growing up in Wichita in the 70's, I'd watch the locusts in the trees. When they start making noise, you can see them. I'd take a long pole and poke it up into the trees - and inch by inch I'd sneak up until I could smash then with the end of the pole. They'd fall down and I'd pick them up and take them over to my box turtle cage. I'd hold them by the wings and in one quick bite, the turtles would chomp them up. Very cool as a kid.
The locusts are still there, but unfortunately the box turtles are not - their native habitats have been wiped out by development. As a kid I could find them roaming around everywhere - now they are an endangered species. It makes me sad knowing that for thousands of years, the native Kansas Ornate box turtle was living happily all throughout southeast Kansas... and now within just the course of a few decades, they have all but disappeared.
It upsets me knowing that my kids will not have the kind of fun I had growing up.
-Thirtycal