Some autumn fun pagan football style

I don't know what it is about football and bonfires, but they've been having homecoming parades that ended with a bonfire since I can remember.  And remember I do.  There is one particular year, my Junior year I believe, that mixed our homecoming and an open house at the high school.  Maybe even teachers meetings, since I remember my Mom being there and meeting with teachers.  But I remember the bonfire, the apple cider and donuts, the running around in the cool of the night, leaves underfoot and the dark night filled with that crisp autumn feel.  The friends, the fun. It's as if it was yesterday.  But it wasn't yesterday, and those images are now mere shadows, fading with each passing year.

Which is why we have kids.  Those times for me are over, long passed.  Some who would have been there that night all those years ago are no longer alive.  But last night, it was all fresh and new for my boys.  It being both chilly and damp, we decided to leave our youngest home with my Mom.  But we took the older three to hang out, if only for a little while (the modern homework load makes planning anything during the week an undertaking at best).  I think they had fun.  I know we did.  Even when the flames shot so high the the local firefighters had to step in and drench the fire to get it under control.  I hope they have good memories of things like this someday.  I hope they look back when they are older, and prayerfully in more stable positions than we find ourselves now, and can tell their children about those times, all those years ago, when they were at a bonfire in the crisp autumn night with their parents.

If it looks scary, it was...our 8th grader also seem to think as he looks on at the flames

You be the judge: Are they having fun yet?  Not the same without our youngest,
though many years spent growing up together