MY HEART IS STILL A FIREBALL...

Image copyright relevant owners

When I was a kid living in the first house I remember,

in the woods at the top of the street, there was a fallen tree 

that I imagined was FIREBALL XL5.  I'd sit on the front of it,

pretending it was Fireball Junior and that I was pilot STEVE

ZODIAC.  When I was about 5 years old, we moved to a big-

ger house a few minutes away in a different street, but I

often returned to those woods to play on my tree.

One day my big brother came in and told me that work-

men had turned the tree around while doing something in the

woods (no, they weren't bears, so it wasn't that), so at the first

opportunity I ran up to see for myself.  I was disappointed, not

being a fan of change of any kind, but there wasn't anything

I could do but accept the cold hard fact of the situation.

When we moved again, I revisited 'Fireball' often, even

taking some of the loose roots from the upturned base of the

tree as mementos of my childhood.  At some stage in the '70s

(mid-to-late, I think - can't quite remember) old 'XL5' was re-

moved and I never saw it again.  (Wouldn't it be weird if one of

the wooden ornaments in my house was made from the tree

and I didn't know?  I mean, I'd know there was an orna-

ment, but not that it was made from the tree.)

Anyway, fade out the 'TWILIGHT ZONE' theme.

I don't have a photo of the tree to show you (took some,

but never had them developed), so I thought I'd show you

a piccie of Fireball XL5 itself.  Don't know who the artist is,

but it's a pretty neat illustration.  Always loved those jet-

mobiles - anyone know where I can buy a real one?

Yeah, some of my posts are pretty weird, ain't they?

Posted in: Cartoons