Campfire magic ~ July 3, 1996
David Heiller We asked a couple friends over on a recent Friday night for a campfire. We didn’t have any big reason to see our friends. No card game was planned. There was no birthday party, no potluck supper. Just the campfire. We visited, and roasted marshmallows, and made s’mores, and broke out the banjo and guitar and sang songs. All around the campfire. It was a beautiful June evening, cool though to keep the mosquitoes away. Lightning bugs twinkled in the field. The sky was full of stars. But the campfire was the real star of the show. It glowed with warmth, and heated our souls as well as our bodies. We sat in a circle around it on chairs lovingly made by the late Gene Lourey, which made it even nicer. Every so often someone would add a piece of wood. Then the fire would flare up and light our faces in pumpkin orange. Noah starts a fire. Talk came easy. Long pauses didn’t bother anybody. The campfire filled them in. One of our guests was a teenage boy who...