So there were all kinds of growing up adventures of that kind. But I do remember too in front of my grand parental home in Lumberton, North Carolina, there was a giant live oak that extended out into the highway. And I remember that, because I tracked the carpenter ants that made their way into the oak and up its trunk, and so forth. But I had my ear pressed to the ground, listening for what the ants were saying to one another. And of course I had to then experiment by bringing them into the house and liberating them there (chuckles) to the annoyance of my uncles, aunts, and grandparents. (George chuckles) So that affiliation, that bonding with the natural world in my case, occurred very early. And it wasn’t, as I say, there was no one in the family who particularly had any interest of that sort, but they were tolerant, thank God.
