I used to have a chestnut tree in my front yard growing up. I used to shoot the nuts out of my wrist rocket at the stray dogs that used to fight with my Newfoundland Lab mix. I should have let Sherman have at them. He was shot by the neighbor for chasing his ducks. Hit by a Ford LTD and caused $500 of front end damage. His name was because of his size. When I was 10 he used to knock me down and mouth my head. He used to drive me nuts doing that. Full on punches, hit by the LTD, shot, hit over the head with a piece of firewood to get him to let go of one of those stray dogs. One time he was laying under my dads Ford Courier. Neighbor's dog came up and started messing with him. He was trying to stand up under the truck and was almost lifting the backend off the ground. He was a tank. Nothing seemed to phase him. Best dog I ever had, and he followed me and my brother home from the store one afternoon. Ten years later after I joined the Army my dad ended up putting him down because his hips gave out and he couldn't get up anymore.

Hey, what happened to "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire"??

Banned but not forgotten. Kids today do not have the joy of jumping into large piles of leaves before their dad lit it up to burn. Just talking about it brings the memory of the smell of leaves burning back.