When I see these infestations it always reminds me of my summer job. During summers when I was going to college, I worked for the state highway department. I usually did labor jobs like cleaning the restrooms at roadside parks (that is another story), acting as a flagger on construction sites, mowing, and other such work. One summer there was supposed to be an infestation of army worms. They create a web nest like this in the branches of trees. My job was going to be driving the state and locating infestations. I was going to get $600 per month. That was a lot of money in those days for summer help. I usually made about $2 per hour. I was going to get a state car also. Wow!

When I went to work, I was teamed with an old man who had never had an accident in all his years with the state. My car and assignment was not ready and so I had to ride with this gentleman until my job was ready. I was with him for about two weeks and almost every day he came very close to having an accident. In two cases he caused an accident.

When we would come upon some highway workers he would pull off the road to visit with them. Many times he would not signal and just pull off or pull on in front of traffic. One time he pulled onto the highway in front of a car, causing the car to swerve and go into the ditch. Needless to say he was blamed for the accident and that ended his perfect driving record. And I was there and glad to get away.

After a couple of weeks I was told that my job would not materialize. I went back to my labor job but I still got the pay for the other job. I was disappointed because I was looking forward to driving around the state looking for the army worm infestations.