Jul. 05, 2007 - 23:45 MDT

THE FIFTH

The day after the "Glorious Fourth" we kids scrounged the neighborhood looking for "live ones," which could be found sparingly. When found they were expended in the noisiest way.

But gathering spent evidence of the yearly battle was taken seriously by us.

It was sort of a contest to see who could gather the most skyrocket sticks, spent pinwheels and the spent Roman Candles. We didn't turn up our noses at burned out sparklers, especially the giant kind.

Somewhat like vultures we were, though we didn't eat our prey, we gloated a lot over our accomplishments - - - little though they were.

It was the thing of putting ourselves in the spot of the day before and doing it all over again, perhaps is the best way to put it.

The scavenged material was hid out for awhile and then thrown in the trash, but yet today (though none is to be found), the impulse is there to do what we used to do on THE FIFTH . . . . . . . . . . . .

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