I remember walking barefoot through the warm summer mud of Alabama on my way to the little corner store in the hopes of getting one of the unfinished barrels of ice cream the owner would give us before he replaced them with full ones. We would sit in the grass together and talk about how lucky we were.Going to picnics and fishfries on the riverbanks. eating collard greens and fried chicken. Catching fireflies and garter snakes and polywogs. Running in the woods with my dogs. Sitting in the rumble seat of our old ford when my grandfather made an occassional visit to our cousin out in the hills who made "white lightning" a term I didn't understand for a long time. In short the most carefree happy childhood provided by two loving grandparents. For me those were my golden years. Auntie