Sheena, Queen of the Jungle and the Bee

My Grandpa Riddle tended three or four beehives in our backyard, and there were always bees around, plus we had a lot of clover in our yard, and Grandma Riddle loved to plant and grow pretty flowers. 

Around 1955, when I was probably in my fourth life of My Nine Lives Plus One, I loved to pretend that I was Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.  My cats were vicious tigers, and sticks and sharp pieces of wood became my spears and knives.  I made a bow and arrow from a tree branch and twine, and of course I had a slingshot.  What kid didn't have a slinghot in those days?  I had big trees to climb to hide from cannibals and wild tigers (I had a vivid imagination).  Pretending to be the beautiful Sheena was my favorite game, except for rearranging Grandma's cellar into my playhouse.  I have memories of my cellar playhouse to write about too, but not now.


I was playing Sheena on that summer day when my Dad, Stepmother and siblings came to pick me up to spend a week with them in Arkansas.  I was really looking forward to that visit too, but it seems I was always having a run-in with bees, yellow jackets or wasps.


Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, with spear in hand, wooden knife at waist, bow and arrow on her back, was running around the backyard to the top of the cellar and down again to escape from the hungry cannibals while hunting for wild, ferocious tigers.  I remember galloping down the side of the cellar and stepping into the clover and onto a bee!  It stung my left foot something awful, and it swelled up within a few minutes like a big balloon.  Grandma put some kind of home remedy on it as usual, but I don't remember what it was--I just remember the pain from that bee sting!  She probably used kerosene--seems like she used kerosene (or coal oil commonly called back then) to cure everything in those days from bee stings, cuts, hives, scrapes, and occasionally snake bites, I am told!   I guess I am very lucky that I wasn't one of those kids who was allergic and died from bee stings or from the overuse of kerosene on my scrapes, cuts and stings.


It troubled me greatly that Grandma might reconsider letting me travel to Arkansas with my Dad, but they put a pillow in the back seat for me to prop my foot on, and probably reassured her that I would receive special TLC, which I did.  It was a little crowded in that back seat with Kathy, Eddie, little Gary, and Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, and her big 'ole swollen left foot.

The swelling was gone within a couple of days and it turned out to be the best week ever that summer with my Dad, Stepmom, and especially my siblings.  Kathy, Eddie and I would walk down the dusty country road every day, so we could hang our barefeet over the edge of the creek bridge, and harmoniously sing all of the Everly Brothers' songs we knew!