RDP Monday: NETTLES

Stinging Nettle
Tom Reaume

One day ( when I was about 9 years old ) me and my friends were out  doing ‘nothing’ as we Boomers and gen X’rs called it back in the day, when we came across a huge bed of stinging nettles.

Keep in mind there was no Google, there were no cellphones with cameras,  and the  writing on the bathroom walls in schools and restaurants and bars were as close as  we were to having ” Social Media Platforms. ” Our source of information came to us by word of mouth and trial and error. It may not sound efficient, but what can I say? If the power went out or you lost a charger you  weren’t cut off from the world.

Besides, we weren’t stupid kids and we used to spend a lot of time in the woods. We knew exactly what stinging nettles looked like and had to been told about a million stories about people who had been stung.

So at that point none of my group of friends had been stung yet.

Out in the woods that day as we found ourselves looking down into that softy green bed of nettles, and of course,  because it was just bound to happen sooner or later  one of us said, ” how bad can it really hurt? “

 Was it as bad as a bee sting? A shot in the arm from the doctor? What did it feel like,  we wondered.

I’ve seen videos of honey bees shaking their backsides and dancing- that’s how they  communicate with each other ( which is the same thing humans do, but I digress ) so without saying a word,  like a colony of bees, me and my friends all reached down at the same time and grabbed a handful of stinging nettles- just to see what it would feel like.

I am here to tell you it doesn’t feel good, it does hurt. But back then when you were a out in the woods pulling silly stunts with your friends and it cost you,  you could  scream and carry on as loud as you wanted with wild abandon-because back then there were no phone with cameras and youtube and tic-tok or instagram to spread you ding- bat behavior all over the internet where it would live forever-

except

there might be one of you who didn’t grab a handful of stinging nettles because her Mama didn’t raise a fool and that friend might grow up to be a writer who will blog about your adventures on line

where

they will live on the internet forever.