Synchronicity

When I look back on things I saw in my childhood, the more and more Del Rio seems like a rare place and maybe I just happened to be at the right place at the right time. I haven't seen the Monarch butterflies descend on Austin the way they used to when I was living in Del Rio. In fact it is rare that I ever see a butterfly just bouncing along the landscape. It has been less than 8 or 5 times in the past 18 years. When I did see one I did stop to watch it.

I remember being out at recess in October and there were so many Monarchs you'd step on them if you moved too fast. They were in the trees in the schoolyard, on the building, jungle gym, flying all over. Not many kids would pick them up, we were all taught not too. Of course there were those few who couldn't resist, same kids that kept the horned toads in shoeboxes until they died. Those are gone too. Horned toads were everywhere, again, in my own backyard you had to watch it over the summer or you'd step on one. Never knew of anyone who ever did. I guess by high school the MOnarchs started to disappear, then again, I wasn't paying attention to much in high school. I do remember being reminded it was October though, because the Monarchs were in the neighborhood fluttering around.

There were also times when all these toads would just come into the neighborhood in large herds. I remember crickets, cicadas and birds doing the same thing. Mini plagues? So what happened? Changing climate, end of the world soon? Do I just happen to remember a few hundred more Monarchs than there actually were? Just like to think that I was at the right place at the right time, it isn't often that one finds oneself in a perfect spot.