"They were always fireflies to the untrained eye, but I could always tell..."

It seems interesting to me how in the past few years the day before my birthday I become kind of nostalgic... I remember things about growing up which I have not thought about in such a long time... I tend to think back on the more simpler days of my childhood.

I remember how when back around the age of four when my daddy would take me to my neighbor's house across the street and push me on their huge tree swing. I remember that feeling of being pushed so high that I thought I could some how fly away. I always loved it when we would do that.

I remember how catching lightning bugs in the late Summer evening with my cousins who lived right across the street was almost a magical thing. We would catch them and my mom would have a jar with holes poked into the top and we would keep them in it for the night. We would all hang-out in the living room once it was completely dark and let the jar containing the lightning bugs be the lantern for the room. It was so captivating to wait for them to glow. I remember how some kids would catch them just to stomp on them to watch the glow, and I would get so upset with them for killing such a cool creature. I always thought it was a cruel and mean thing to do.

I remember on the fourth of July how after the big fireworks show happened at the stadium we would go home and hang-out with the neighborhood families for our own little fireworks shows. The whole neighborhood pitched in and bought fireworks. My favorite thing was the sparklers as a kid. I guess that is how I began being a pyromaniac. I loved it. The next morning all of us kids would wake up and go outside to view the "damage" we caused the night before. We would all then work together to pick up the trash that was left over from the fireworks we shot off.

I remember how on snow days the most fun thing to do was to go up the HUGE dirt hill in the field in my backyard and sled down. That was before they built the apartment complex that is now what at one time was my backyard. Us neighborhood kids would have races down that hill... we would then move onto building igloos and having snow ball fights after we got tired of trudging up the hill.

It was a much simpler time as a kid... and I miss those times. I know I was a lucky kid and am thankful for as many good memories as these that I have....