Year was around 1956 or 57-

It was fall river, near Boston, I was  5 ,maybe 6. His name was David and he had  blonde hair and blue eyes and I thought he was the most beautiful person  ever… we loved to explore and we found a field that had the remnants of last year’s weeds and flowers… it must have been spring or summer because when we entered what we thought was a field of dead grass….. we saw that  green shoots of grass were everywhere as were many many  wild flowers…it was so surprising and so beautiful.

Then we saw the butterflies….hundreds of them it seemed..

I wish I could hold one I told David..

I wish I could have them all in  a jar.

Little blonde boy David said, wait I will be right back…

 a few mins later he returned with a  mason jar and proceeded to catch butterflies and he filled I mean filled the jar for me… I remember running all around the fields just laughing and laughing and laughing as  he caught butterflies and filled the  jar with them. I remember such happiness just to be  with  someone having fun..

 here he said as he handed the jar of butterflies to me,.

…for you….

And he smiled his little 6 year old smile as he handed me  the jar….

 A jar of butterflies..

The jar of butterflies  was one of the best gifts I have ever received..

WE watched them for a while and then I said, they need to go fly and be free or they will die…. so we set them loose….. we sat in the grass  and the butterflies landed all around  us..on our arms,  in our hair, I remember giggling and thinking how neat is this,,,what a neat gift..my first gift from a boy..

Later that day we went down to the river.

We had  STRICT orders  to STAY AWAY from the river. It was dangerous for little children…  to me that mean go check it out. I was  an explorer..I was a very  obedience child except when it came to exploring.

At the edge of the fall river  we saw  shells. I have never seen a clam but I assume they were fresh water clams that someone had thrown the shells  back into the river.

David would not let me go get  the shells even though I really wanted to…he again said wait here and he slid down t he bank and retrieved a shell.

Back up to me, my hero who protected me from the  river and brought me a prize shell,  all because it was what I wanted.

I often think of David… when I have dark times, sad times ,times where I need to go to a place of happiness and joy, I go the  field with David..

do not know what his  last name is or even was but I think he had the makings of an amazing man..  that was over 50 years ago and I hope David with no last name had a great life..I hope he found someone to love and give butterflies to and protect her from falling in the river.

I wonder if he gave her a jar of butterflies like he gave me…