Randy Hudson: I grew up in State College.
Contrasting the early 1960s and now:
- We played baseball on a clover-filled vacant lot. We were lucky to end any game without someone being stung by a honeybee or bumblebee. Now, weeks spent outdoors go by, and I rarely see a bee.
- Lots of my friends collected butterflies. If you went out to vacant fields and meadows (there were lots of them), butterflies were flying everywhere over the flowertops. You could scoop them up with a net. Boys filled boxes with dozensj of kinds of colorful butterflies, pinned to paper. Now I almost never see a butterfly.
- My mother was a bird-watcher, and told our family what she was seeing around our house.
Evening grosbeaks were all over our backyard. Every year we saw large flocks of cedar waxwings. In over 25 years living on my property outside Pine Grove Mills I have seen one flock of waxwings. And no evening grosbeaks.
Contrasting the 1970s and now:
- We were taught in PSU architectural engineering that building footings had to be built to a depth of 3.5 feet below grade, the depth to which the ground typically froze. In January of 2020, the ground has not frozen.
Contrasting the 1990s and now:
- After going for a long drive on the highway, your windshield was covered with splattered bugs. It was a big job to clean your windshield, headlights and grille. Now you can drive a hundred miles.