Swinging and playing in water. I also spent alot of time in the garden with my Grandpa. He had trained parakeets and I loved them all. He taught them to swear, which really droive Grandma mad, hee-hee!

I was 12 years old, it was 1993, and my brother had tickets to see Van Halen. Since he was older by 7 years and driving, he was used to asking friends closer to him in age. But for whatever reason, he couldn't find a taker for the extra ticket.

So one night, he called me to the kitchen. "Hey Mike! Come here!" So I go to the kitchen. He's talking with mom at the table. He asks me "How would you like to see Van Halen?"

I was so giddy I couldn't keep my feet on the floor. Sure, it was Sammy Hagar singing, but it was probably the greatest event of my life.

Getting up real early on a Saturday morning and going fishing with my father and grandpa in beautiful Long Island Sound in a rented row boat and our 10 hp evinrude outboard motor.Diging for the bait the day before was also fun

Too hard to choose but here's one:
Riding on the back of my grandpa's truck with some beef jerky and a real coke in the blistering Texas border heat on the way to ride horses.

Probably searching for bigfoot. But that's a story for another day.

Pretty much everything.

Each year when I was a child my father had to attend a church conference in a cooler part of the country where blackberries grew, and my sisters and I would spend a full week picking and eating those blackberries, Yum.

When I was about 8 the county rebuilt the road across the valley below our farm; to do so they stopped the hillside on our side to bedrock. In that rock I discover massive fossil beds, the happiness moment that lead to hundreds more digging fossils.

falling asleep peacefully next to a window that used to be by my bedside

When I was 9 years old a friend of my mother offered to accompany my two sisters and I around at the worlds fair. We were told to meet him at a specific point. We never found him among the throngs of people there, which caused alarm and fear to me and my younger sister who was 9 years old at the time. My older sister calmly asked each of us how much money we had. We pooled our money and she managed to get us to the downtown area where we caught a bus home. Later my mother's friend chided us for not meeting him at the worlds fair. We told him we never saw him among the many people. My older sister who I never much cared for was 11 years old at the time earned my admiration and respect from that experience.

Summers spent with my grandmother. We watched soap operas together, I roller skated on the street in front of her house, took naps on her screened in porch, and the food was always fantastic. Would love to have another day like those.

One of our neighbors was very eccentric. SHe had a pigeon living free in the house. We would take Pidge outside, throw her in the air and she would return to us. Once she didnt. About a year later I was by the local church with hundreds of pigeons walking on the ground around me. SOmehow I recognized Pidge, picked her up and took her back home

Junior High -- I built an ornithopter from plans in a magazine and flew it around the living room. My mom didn't impress easily, but that got a wow out of her.