Riverside Park--Independence, KS

Many moons ago I did something I dreamed of doing since my 15th birthday. The Fourth of July in Independence found me sitting on a park bench, away from my friends watching the flashing silver streamers and gold twinkles of the annual fireworks display. As the aerial bombs exploded into light, I felt the hot summer breeze drift over my damp skin, but I didn't care because I sat there with my first serious girlfriend.

Straight up Park Street, past the Girl Scout House, the baseball fields and about 35 feet past the two lions guarding the entrance to Riverside Park, there it sat. We used to call it the waterworks, but the Kodachrome fountain that sat about 40 yards from the Shelter House put on its own display, shooting bright plumes of water high in the air and all the while changing colors in a soothing rainbow of red, blue and green.

Holding hands, there were as many stars in our eyes as in the sky. Although I was sitting on the bench, I was far away on another planet watching the silver rings of Saturn and awesome diamond studded belt of the Milky Way. I was in love for the first time in my life; I mean smitten, swept off my feet and overcome with emotion.

Although neither of us spoke, communication flowed through the gushing pipelines of our hearts. With what is now known as Logan Square fountain playing its music on the catch pool surface, even though it must have been nearly 100 degrees, I felt nothing except the smoothness of her skin touching mine.

"There you are," Larry Morrison said. "We've been looking for you for more than an hour. Johnny told us you were out here."

Bucket head Johnson chimed in, "DB doesn't want to be bothered." Leroy wasn't known for startling insights, but even he could see the lost look on our faces. Before I could get a word out my partner Gayle Anderson and Jo Ann Pringle walked up.

"You guys gonna sit here all night? I thought we were going to drop the top and head out to Six-Mile-Junction?"

Even as hot as it was, riding with top down at 70 miles an hour cooled you off quickly. Finally, we got up and stood looking at the fountain until I pulled her close to me and gently brushed her lips with mine.

That was many years ago, but that night in front the fountain is still in my mind, locked away in my personal treasure chest and my memories of a special night in Independence, KS on the 4th of July.