Chapter Three

Ants - 1961

The Peace Corps is created by President Kennedy to meet, "The urgent needs for skilled manpower," in third world countries: March 1.

The first person to ever orbit the earth is Yuri Gararin. He does one revolution in 108 minutes and returns to earth: April 12.

FCC chairman, Newton Minow, calls television, "a vast wasteland," during a speech given to the National Association of Broadcasters: May 1.

Leaving Washington DC for New Orleans by bus, thirteen "Freedom Riders" test desegregation of public facilities along the way. The movement grows to include trains and planes: May 4.

Freedom Fighter buses are firebombed, passengers are attacked and beaten, and local police respond with the comment, "We have not intention of standing guard for a bunch of troublemakers." President Kennedy dispatches federal marshals and the National Guard to protect the riders: May 15 to May 20.

Construction begins on the Berlin Wall because western governments would not sign a Soviet-brokered peace treaty with Germany: August 13.

Cellist Pablo Casals performs at the White House. Caryl Chessman is not mentioned: November 13.

South Vietnam receives 4000 US troops and 32 helicopters. The troops are instructed not to fire unless fired upon first. December 11.

There are 737 people arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, when they march on city hall, protesting the trials of eleven Freedom Riders. Protests lead to a black boycott of white merchants: December 12-16.

The boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, ends with the desegregation of public facilities, reduced sentences for the Freedom Riders, and an end to the protests and boycott. It is a good Christmas, after all, for local merchants: December 18.

* * *

My grandmother would always shout at me, "Don't leave that there; it'll bring ants."

"That" could have been anything from a lollipop, to cake, a sandwich, or crumbs on a plate.

I grew up in mortal fear that ants would infest any room where food was left. Somewhere around my ninth year I had a dream where I was Gulliver and ants were Lilliputians. They had me tied down in the schoolyard while they feasted on all the delicacies of my lunch box.

I should stop to explain how my young mind envisioned ants. They were two legged, not six, and didn't have anything else approaching insect-like characteristics. They gave you slobbery kisses on the cheek when they saw you and had big bosoms that were soft and squishy like feather pillows.

Can you imagine my little boy fright of being tied down by thousands of aunts? Considering the amount of kisses I stood in for, between their raids on my lunch, the "Yeech Factor" could be exponentially expressed. I probably woke up in a cold sweat though I don't remember that part of the dream.

Looking back on it, I don't see why my grandmother was so worried about ants. Or Aunts. Her house was immaculate and no self-respecting crawling insect would have been seen in it. They would have needed their own supply of food because they wouldn't have found anything in the house. Today, I can picture long lines of ants walking through the kitchen, carrying their little carpetbags full of crumbs.

Since my mother's sister lived there too, I suppose I can understand Grandma's reticence to acquire another Aunt in the house. Of course, this is with adult hindsight and I realize that my Aunt was my grandmother's daughter and not her aunt, but you get the picture.

The most fun I ever had with ants was in the backyard by the garbage cans. There must have been some wonderful food treasures back there because, like Roman highways, all ant roads led to our trash. My two favorite games were playing "God" and "Engineer."

Playing God was the easiest. It involved two parts. Like a fighter pilot from the war movies I would swoop down with a spray bottle of Raid and envelope the ant infantry columns with a toxic cloud of pyrethrin. The poor, wretched, survivors, struggling to escape the haze were bombed with dirt clods or the bottom of my shoe.

War is hell. And is God.

The second game was the most creative. It involved engineering skills, experimentation with behavior, and psychology.

Nothing beats toying with the minds of lowly invertebrates when you're a child.

If I had recently played a round of God, it was necessary to wait for the ant army to reestablish their lines of communication before attempting this new game. Once there was a particularly long, thick line of ants the stage was set for Engineer.

The first step was to construct some outlandish course of obstacles: water and sand hazards, mountain peaks, and bridges.

Next, I needed to be like a railroad switchman and offer some inducement for the army to change its route.

Finally, after the ants were walking the path I set for them, the real fun could begin.

I would remove essential elements of the course, interrupting the flow of ants, and see what they did or how long it took to reestablish the column. I would take pieces of stick or leaf, with many soldiers, and turn it around 180 degrees.

Oh! how confusion reigned!

Around 4th of July there were even firecrackers to add to the equation. After much experimenting on my part, I was able to hypothesize what my little changes in the ant's environment would produce.

With this sort of background I should have graduated to working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Then, I could have learned how to build bridges one day and blow them up the next. Think of the fun in destroying your proudest creations.

But I didn't become an engineer because of something I saw the ants doing.

I'll always remember when I learned why ants touch antenna. They're communicating.

After that realization I had momentary pangs of guilt for having played with their minds. What sort of garbled message was being passed up the line? Did the ants at one end get angry with their friends for doling out false information? Did they know? Did they care?

As enjoyable as it was, building new highways for the ants to traverse, it wasn't as much fun as watching them or trying to understand why they did what they did.

I think my mother used to feel that way about me.

Who wants to be an engineer anyway? Engineers lack the excitement of working with systems interconnecting with other, interconnected, systems.

Engineers work with numbers. There isn't any of the mystery you find in studying life. Numbers, by virtue of what they are, are predictable. Plug them into one end of the formula and spit them out the other end. Once the bridge, or dam, or skyscraper, or road, or dingus is made, what is there left to wonder about?

To maintain the world of the built environment, it is necessary to plunder and destroy the depths of the natural world.

It's as if trees, rivers, rocks and minerals, animals; the earth itself, is a platter of food left lying around after some massive picnic and we humans have come to feast.

One day, someone else playing God will reach a hand down and move us around like I did the ants. We'll run about in confusion, garbling messages, and eventually settle down to another equilibrium.

I wish my grandmother was still alive so I could tell her that leaving food around the house doesn't bring ants. All it does is concentrate them.