What does July mean to you?  We certainly recognize it as the middle of the summer season.  On the 4th day, we celebrate a mid summer holiday.  For most of us, it’s a day off work, dinner on the grill, maybe fireworks, without a thought of why.  Most people seem to call the day, the 4th of July.  Sounds like just a day on the calendar.  What do you know about the day that this date celebrates?  Have you ever read the Declaration of Independance?

In July of 1776, a group of men assembled in a building in Philadelphia, with a single purpose.  They represented the colonies that were formed by the British crown on this side of the Atlantic, with the purpose of forming a self governing united nation, free of the Crown’s will.  But, there was something different about this revolution.  Most revolutions, in history, have been organized by representatives of the poorer, lower classes.  But, these men in Philadelphia were men of means.  They owned established and successful businesses and were some of the wealthiest men in the colonies.  In most revolutions, the leaders had nothing to lose and everything to gain.  These men had everything to lose, and nothing to gain, exept one thing.

Virginia representative, Thomas Jefferson, presented the assemblage with a draft of a document for their consideration.  As often happens, disagreements ensued over petty points in the document.  These arguements might have lasted for quite some time, if external conditions had not conspired to end them.

As July came to Philadelphia, a severe wave of mid summer heat and humidity descended upon the city.  With air conditioning not yet invented, the only releif from these conditions, inside a building, was an occasional merciful breeze through an open window.  Another factor added more to the misery.

While we may complain about exhaust from automobiles, the “exhaust” from the major mode of transportation at that time, laying in the streets, formed a breeding ground for certain flies, the females of which use blood as a rich protien scource for the developing embryos in their eggs.  High temperatures shorten development time.  Remember the open windows, and screens weren’t invented yet, either.  As the 4th day of July dawned, between the heat, humidity and biting flies, one can only imagine the conditions inside that building.  Think such conditions might induce one to put petty points aside, go up and sign the document, and go out to try to get some relief?  That’s exactly what happened in that building, that day.

If you didn’t read the Declaration, do you remember the last sentence?  “We solemnly pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour.”  This was not an idle pledge, for the British Crown came to consider the document an act of treason, a capitol crime, and all who signed the document, guilty of it.

As the men in the newly declared country fought the well organized British army, some army units were assigned the mission of seeking and capturing the declaration signers.  The soldiers succeeded in capturing a few of them.  They were then shipped off to England, where they were “tried” and hanged.  They paid with their lives.

Some others, finding out about the advancing British army units, fled their homes, thereby avoiding capture.  However, they couldn’t take with them, the businesses they had built.  The British burned down everything on their property, destroying everything they owned.  These former wealthy businessmen lost all they had and, although they escaped capture, they lived the rest of their lives and died in poverty.  They paid with their fortunes.

And so, as we wake up on this Independance Day and start getting ready for our barbecues and other activities, perhaps we can also give a fleeting thought to that hot, sticky July day, when a group of devoted patriots walked up to the podium, to pledge their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.

And a nation was born.

You may have seen, in the national news, a story about a big swarm of cicadas expected this summer.  Here are some of the facts concerning this event.

The cicada is a large and harmless insect with 2 pairs of membranous wings and a beak for piercing and sucking.  All animals have mature and immature phases in their life cycle but, what’s unusual about this insect is that some species, in this family, spend 17 years in immature stages in the soil and a few weeks as mature adults, high in trees.  Several broods of the genus Magicicada have been identified and their life cycles recorded.  In one of the largest of them, known as brood II, a massive emergence of the adults of this brood occurred in 1996.  This means that the generation that they produced is due to emerge this year, and that has already started to happen.

The wingless nymphs have spent the last 17 years feeding on roots in the soil and growing through several instars.  Then, on a series of nights, early in the season, a bunch of them emerges from the soil.  They climb several feet up a tree.  Then, clinging to the trunk, the winged adult emerges from the nymphal skeleton.  By morning, blood has been pumped into the wing veins and they are able to fly off to near the top of the tree.  The shed nymph skeleton can still be seen, clinging to the tree trunk.  The adult males vibrate sound organs on their abdomens, making a buzzing sound to attract females.  Where there is a large emergence this year, there’s so much of this buzzing, making it so loud, that hikers have a hard time hearing each other.  The eggs drop to the ground and the little nymphs hatch out and go underground for another 17 years.

While we have cicadas here, and you might hear them and see the nymph skeletons on trees during our next few hikes, this particular brood is not known to occur in this area.  If you go to the web site, www.magicicada.org, you can bring up maps showing where they occur and where they have been seen emerging.  In case your travels take you there in the next few weeks, you can be treated to a rare and interesting natural phenomenon.