Falling Stars

One of the earliest memories I have of the trips happened the first year, with Dad, Mom and myself. We stopped at a motel in Cedar City, Utah and it was a warm clear Summers night. The motel I remember was very nice, all wood, inside and out, and was more of a cabin style motel that you could take walks around. The motel also had a swing set, and that was always a main attraction for me since I've always liked to get pushed on the swing and daydream. Dad mostly always was the person to push me on the swing and as far as I was concerned I could stay being pushed for hours. I'm sure Dad was glad when the time came that I was able to swing myself because if there was a swing set available I would insist to get a push for however long Dad was willing to put up with it.

This night in Cedar City, Dad and I took a walk around the motel grounds, it was dark and there was lots of insect sounds all around us, when we eventually made our way to the swing set, and I of course asked to be pushed on the swing. So like I said it was dark and Cedar City at the time was the middle of nowheres, so the stars in the sky were brilliant and bright, and Dad was showing me the stars. All of a sudden a shooting star went past, I had never seen one before and probably missed it all together, but Dad got very excited and tried to point it out to me during that fleeting moment. Dad began to explain to me about "falling stars", and all I could think of was the actual stars we were looking at falling from the sky, remember I was only about 4 years old and the concept of astronomy wasn't all that clear yet to me. So after a little while another falling star went by, (I'm sure this time I missed it) but Dad stopped the swing and pointed my whole body in the direction of the falling star, like I was going to somehow catch it moments after it had passed. By now the swinging was coming to an end and Dad and I sat on one of the 2 person swings and tried to catch a glimpse of another falling star. Many falling stars did come by and Dad would always perk up when he saw one, I always attempted to see it but never could quite get my reflexes to react and actually see one. Dad was calling this a "meteor shower", which seemed kind of funny since showers were always wet, and included sprays of liquid, not the occasional and elusive dot that I never saw. I however was being polite and every time Dad pointed out another falling star I would agree that I saw it too. At one point I thought I did see a falling star, it was about the size of a golf ball and it landed in the bushes right in front of us, and I noticed how slow and floaty these falling stars actually were, it also made a noise like a cricket.

Dad and I stayed out by the swing set for hours, looking up at the sky and the stars, talking about the universe.