Fire Fascination

There comes a time in many young boys' lives when there is this huge urge to burn something.

Such a time arrived for me, probably around age 10 or 12.

Several things coincided to make the "perfect storm":

1.  I was visiting my younger cousin.

2.  They had horses.

3.  So they had straw.

In their gravel driveway, we started a small fire which quickly burned out.

For some reason, I decided that building a larger fire closer to the barn would be a great idea.  After all, there was more straw there!

So we did.

As the flames reached several feet in height, my alarmed uncle rushed over and stomped it out with his work boots.

Then he spied me and rushed over to have a serious talk with me.

I greatly feared I might receive a stomping of my own.

I didn't, of course, but I can't remember ever being more afraid in my life!