This has nothing to do with Chrono Trigger and/or Cross.
You may not know it, but here at Jux, we have a long history with frogs. A long and interesting history. A long, and sometimes unpleasant history. It ranges to things that happened many, many years ago, all the way up to this weekend. Undoubtably, we will continue to associate with the nation of jumping amphibians, whether they like it or not. Here are some highlights from past events.
8th Grade – The Pond
Travis, Buddy and I were at one of my mother’s softball games, roaming around Hobgood park. There’s a pond on the grounds, and numerous playgrounds. Luckily for us, the frogs had just spawned. We wandered down to the pond and underhand-tossed a few into the water, they made little splashing noises and swam away happy, I assume. Then I did the famous one, the infamous toss. I hurled a frog in the air as hard as I could, and we waited for it to hit the water.And
waited. And waited. I cannot overstate just how long we waited. Finally, we got bored, and assumed that I had just hit the other shore (a mighty toss indeed), and it was right then that the frog hit the water. It had been up in the air forever , it seems (a mightier toss), and it hit with the most unique sound I have ever heard. It was squisy and wet, yet hard and thumping. It stuck in our brains like bubble gum in the little-girl-who-made-fun-of-you-for-asking-her-out’s-braid. Briefly sated, we stuffed a few more frogs in a Gatorade bottle and rolled it down the slides on the playgrounds for awhile. But our hunger would return…
Summer, 8/9th Grade – The Experiments
Travis and I, in the fields below my house, simply felt we had to recreate the noise that the fateful frog had made when it finally landed. Many a toad was sacrificed, landing on the hard packed Georgia Red Clay that had been placed in the fields by the Etowah River over untold years. Finally, the sound came close to being reborn…as close as we would ever come, anyway, especially on dry land. The same frog had survived two earlier drops, but his third one was a charm. Sadly, it also did him in.
We’re nicer as adults, really.
Kenny’s Frog
This story has already been featured on Jux, in our lovely, quite old Short But True: Room Cleaning feature!
Pants’ Frog
This is the perfect opportunity to introduce the first animal ever known to be named after a Jux Entente in-joke! That’s right, my girlfriend Vivian’s cat, a kitten really, is named Pants. I have a picture of the tag to prove it. Anyway, this weekend Vivian, Travis and myself went roaming in Boling Park, and we just happened to find…a frog! And several big spiders, but the frog is important. And it was really a toad. But, anyway, we scooped the creature in to a Subway cup and took it to Viv’s as a present for Pants. And boy did he love that thing. It tried to play dead, but Pants swatted it and spun it around anyway, and when he DID start to lose interest, Vivian poked it until it moved. When it stopped playing dead though, he was all over it. He didn’t use his claws, luckily. Things got really dicey when the frog tried to escape up a wall.
Eventually, just to prove we’ve all become better people, we set the frog free outside…unharmed. Pants mewed desperately for his favourite toy. He was very upset that it was gone…but oh well.
Pictures, and a video, are attached to show this little spectacle. Weren’t expecting that, were you?
