Truly one of the most memorable moments of childhood is summertime and the days spent at Vacation Bible School. Cookies and Kool-Aid. Elmer's glue and scissors. The Christian and American flags marching side-by-side down the center of the aisle.

Every evening a pile of little children, including myself, congregated outside the doors of my church and prepared for the processional. Someone got to carry the Christian flag. Someone got to carry the American flag. Someone got to carry the Holy Bible. The piano tickled to life and the march down the aisle began.

Pledges were said, songs were sung, and everyone retired to our classrooms for fun.

Each received our own VBS workbook and materials. The fun part, however, was craft time.

One year I made a birdhouse. One year I made a bald eagle out of Popsicle sticks. Once, I wrapped a bunch of orange and blue yarn around two sticks, smacked a cut-out Auburn logo in the center and called it art.

Alabama fans may disagree.

Nothing I built in VBS ever came out looking like it was supposed to.

Some are just naturally inclined to create objects of great beauty and interest out of glitter, paint, glue and beads.

I wasn't one of them.

One thing I learned in VBS was how cool it was to spread glue on your fingers and let it dry. Our teacher would be explaining how to appropriately arrange the cotton balls for Noah's beard, and we'd be in the corner watching someone's glue fingers dry.

Break time meant cookies and Kool-Aid. Always. We never deviated from that menu. Sometimes there were Cheetos, or corn chips, but our main nutrition consisted of lemon or shortbread cookies and sugary red water.

On the last night of VBS somebody sprung for McDonald's hamburgers. I recall one lad complaining because it wasn't a cheeseburger. Idiot, I thought. Eat the thing. It's the most food you've had all week.

There were times for outside fun as well.

Games like duck-duck goose, blind man's bluff, and hide-and-go-seek. We had a football-sized field of kudzu behind our church. One kid ran out there to hide and I believe they're still looking for him.

At the end of the week, everyone who had successfully completed VBS received a certificate. Once, I think the teachers and volunteers, God bless them, gave each other certificates of completion.

It's their own fault.

They're the ones who gave us the sugar.

Kevin Pearcey is Group Managing Editor of Greenville Newspapers, LLC. He can be reached by phone at 383-9302, ext. 136 or by email at: editor@greenville.advocate.com.