I was so sad that __________________________________________________________________________

Looking forward to your early reply.

Your friend,

Li Hua

   When we got ready to go to the rink (溜冰场), Mom always helped me tie up my skates. Then she _____ her own. Mom and I had been coming to the rink every _____ since my lessons began. That was our deal. I went to _____ on Tuesdays, and we skated together on Sundays.

When we were ready to _____ on the ice, Mom took my hand and put an arm around my shoulder. I looked up at Mom and smiled. She seemed _____ but still smiled back. I took a short gliding (滑行) step, and she stepped with me, holding my hand tight. We went across the rink very _____ After a few minutes, we _____ in the center of the rink. I gently took my _____ back from Mom’s and glided slowly away.

While Mom stood still, I _____ the move my teacher taught me this week. I put one foot on the ______ , leaning forward a little. I slowly raised my back foot as ______ as I could behind me. I stopped and ______ a moment when some bigger kids skated quickly by. ^“OK, Mom. It’s ______ for you to skate alone,” I said. “In fact, there is ______ to be afraid of. Skating alone is no ______ than skating with me.”

Then I did what my teacher did when he was teaching a ______ skater. “ Watch my face, Mom,” I said. “Not your feet. Now, step.” She took a baby step and ______ We stayed until Mom could skate across the rink three times by herself. When she was ______ , she glided over to me and gave me a big hug. “I ______ you could do it,” I said.

She smiled and said, “I couldn’t have done it without my excellent ______.”

   This is the time of the year when I feel the memories of the small town and country days come alive！In October each year，we planned to spend a weekend with our grandparents in Michigan. Riding by fields already harvested for the winter，we could still see remains of summer corn stalks. Smoke would fill the air as we drove through the country. Chimney smoke reminded us the area we were visiting was colder than the city and fireplaces in homes were heated as the months would soon turn to cooler winter days.

While riding along the country road，we saw the trees stand tall and many fallen leaves lie on the ground. And we could see the birds of the season，the pheasants，and watch as they flew in the sky flapping（扑动）their beautiful wings to a hidden area away from the eyes of a hunter. On arriving，our grandparents always had a decorative pumpkin with a smile. It might be weeks before Halloween，but Grandpa grew a supply of pie pumpkins and cooked the seeds with salt for us to eat.

Often the small town would have a homecoming parade（返校节游行）on Saturday morning. We'd walk two blocks to the main street where the school band would start off the festivities. Store owners would all come out to watch the parade. Church women's groups would have tables along the sidewalk to raise money. Children played together and adults talked. What fun it was！

And early in the morning，Dad would meet some men. In an area，they waited for pheasants to fly.

Although pheasants tasted good，I secretly hoped they would let the beautiful birds fly away. They belonged to the blue sky.

As time goes by，all becomes more precious to me. When I married and raised my family，fall trips became a yearly event. Whenever I drive along a country road, I often picture scenes from the small town where my grandparents live in Michigan.

   When Dekalb Walcott Ш was just 8 years old, his father, a Chicago fire chief, let him tag along on a call. Dekalb says a lot of kids idolized (崇拜) basketball player Michael Jordan when he was growing up in Chicago in the1990s. Not him.

“I wanted to be like Dekalb Walcott Jr, ”he says of his father. So when his dad asked if he wanted to go on that call with him when he was 8, Dekalb was excited. “I'm jumping up and down, saying, ‘Mom, can I go? Can I go?’”

The experience changed Dekalb's life, and he told his dad on a visit to StoryCorps. “My eyes got big the moment the alarm went off, ” the younger Dekalb says. “This is the life that I want to live someday. ”

Now 27, the younger Dekalb is living that life. He became a firefighter at 21 and went to work alongside his dad at the Chicago Fire Department. Before his father retired, the pair even went out on a call together-father supervising (监督)son.

“You know, it's everything for me to watch young row, ”his father says. But he also recalls worrying about one particular fire that his son faced.

“I received a phone call that night. And they said, ‘Well, your son was at this fire. ' I said, ‘OK, which way is this conversation going to go?'”Dekalb Walcott Jr. recalls.

“And they said, ‘But he's OK. And he put it out all by himself. Everybody here was proud of him. ’”

“And the word went around, ‘Who was out there managing that fire? Oh, that’s Walcott!That's Walcott up there!’So, you know, moments like that, it's heaven on earth for a dad. ”

Dekalb Walcott Jr. has retired. The younger Dekalb says he's proud of being a second-generation firefighter. “You know, it makes me look forward to fatherhood as well, because I'm definitely looking forward to passing that torch (火把) down  to my son. ”