When I was a kid growing up in the countryside, the first thing I'd do after school during this season was grab a little shovel and go looking for finger-sized holes under the poplar trees around our house.
Those were the burrows of cicada nymphs.
If you carefully dug open the entrance, you could pull out the cicada nymph still hiding inside.
It got even more exciting at night.
You didn't have to dig. All you had to do was take a flashlight into the woods and shine it on the trees.
The cicada nymphs would emerge on their own and crawl up the trunks.
Back then, if you managed to fill a whole bottle with them,
you were the king among your friends the next day.
Later, I moved to the city.
Even though there were fewer cicadas, the woods by the city moat were still a playground for all the kids.
So many years flew by. Busy with medical school, busy with life, the joys of childhood were a distant memory.
I never thought I'd come across this scene again.
