These creatures that I drew are partly imaginary but based on real life experiences of a youngster marveling at nature. In my youth, I spent summers on Fox Lake, northwest of Chicago. The elders told me that the lakes were made by glaciers hundreds of thousands of years ago. Furthermore, in the night sky there was a hazy spot, the Andromeda Galaxy, the light from which, I was told took 2 million years to reach my eyes.

In the fall, flocks of migratory geese and ducks filled the sky.  A hot August night meant fireflies, millions of them. One summer there was an invasion of gigantic bullfrogs; another an outburst of salamanders: and then the 17-year locusts, which covered every inch of grass and tree and were very friendly. You could pick them up and examine them up close.

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