Yes, I'd say we had some good times when I was little. Pumpkin cake donuts and apple cider will always hold a special place in my heart, along with Slim Jims and Juicy Fruit gum.

We used to go out for donuts and juice at Donut King and I couldn't wait for October to roll around when they had pumpkin donuts and cider.

We went to another restaurant a lot and I'd always get a Slim Jim and a pack of Juicy Fruit when we were paying the bill.

Some of the horse and pony memories, I could do without. LOL Like the time Cocoa decided he wanted to take a roll in a sand pit, with me still on him, or the time he wanted a drink while we were crossing a stomach-high creek (his stomach, not mine) and I went flying over his head.

There's a dozen sleepy beagle puppies and the smell of wet dog food and oatmeal, mixed with smells of hay and molasses and horses and leather tack. I loved being out in the barn or in dad's blacksmith shop.

Oh, and going out for silver dollar pancakes when we went fishing for bluegills at the Afton Pits. Or getting super cold toes during smelt season. I didn't go ice fishing too often.

Maybe my brothers memories when he was that same age are different. I don't know. But I wouldn't trade my childhood for anything.

Oh, I can't forget hay baling season either, when Pat Dooley and his boys would drive over with their equipment and we'd have a whole weekend of Gray's soda pop in glass bottles and every kind of yummy summer food you could imagine, and his cute sons dressed in nothing but tight jeans with no shirts, tossing hay bales into the wagons.