When I was a kid
we always started with Jumping Jacks
on Guy Fawkes night.
We would light the fuses and run.
They had short attention spans.
We didn’t know where
they’d end up.
They had so much energy.
My kids were like that too.
They took after me.
You have ants in your pants, mum used to say
It’s the
Jumping jack gene.
I’d answer.
My niece, also afflicted,
takes medication and has only just read
her first novel at fifteen.
‘Adam Bede’
[ does anyone still read this?]
The dogs have it too.
Even in their sleep they are running.
Perhaps there is an evolutionary advantage
to being jittery
John Malone 
A good way to stay safe from impending dangers?
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yes, I think that’s what it is, Beth; there’s a little of this in all of us 🙂
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Yes, indeed. Love the title word-play here, John. I call it squirrel syndrome because you’re in the middle of something and then the gears shift.
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‘squirrel syndrome’ : ummm: just looked it up; that’s another useful metaphor; sadly we don’t have Guy Fawkes Night here anymore so the term ‘jumping jacks’ is probably archaic now
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Hope it returns. Sounds like great fun.
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No. It will never return. Too many injuries. I haven’t seen jumping jacks since I was a kid. We had bonfires in the street, street parties, all night revelries — well up until midnight when we kids were sent to bed; who knows what happened then ???
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I see. Wish I could go back then, and just enjoy the mischief one time. 😁
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the mischief is what we all remember 🙂
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Indeed. 😃
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I’d forgotten the existence of these – marvellous!
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thanks Matthew; they were the skittery prelude to a night of bangs and fizzing colour 🙂
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Skittish, my dear old gran used to say. Same idea, I think. 🙂
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there must be an evolutionary advantage in being ‘skittish’. Hobbo ?
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There is, John. It makes you good at playing skittles.
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where do you come up with these zingers, Hobbo? you and Ulle never cease to amaze me 🙂
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I wish I knew. 😂
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Maybe the advantage is in risk taking?
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yes, that is the way we progress —
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I think being jittery may be an evolutionary change because so many can vouch for that. 🙂
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are there the germs of a flash fiction piece in this thought, Terveen ?
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Haha! I believe so, John. I like that idea very much. 🙂
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There’s a dance for it, Jitter Bug.
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that is brilliant, Ulle; I’ll pay that 🙂
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Sounds like the fight or flight response, and it’s better not to be a fighter if you can help it! 😀
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I’ll second that, Eden — though my daughter’s dogs are German Shepherds: they wouldn’t back down —
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