We used to put lighted firecrackers in the neighbor's mailboxes. Helluva bang. When I was a boy we could buy fireworks. my nephew nearly blinded my niece with a Roman Candle. None of this was weird, but, maybe this was: There was a graveyard behind our house, and, I used to go there and read epitaphs looking for people my Uncle told me about. There was a WW1 soldier who didn't make it, and everytime I hear No Man's Land or The Band Played Waltzing Matilda, I think of him. He was married to my aunt who is still alive at 100 years. She never married again.

There is a family story; when I was 3, someone told me you could catch wild birds by sprinkling salt on their tails. I remember asking my mother for some salt, and she telling me she didn't have any. (She being in on the joke) So, I thern asked for an onion so I could squirt the juice into its eyes. True Story.