when you were a kid , and it was august , your dad would take you out in the back yard to watch the meteor showers and you would lay on your back on the plastic strap lawn chairs in the first frosty august night cold and shiver while you listened to dad tell you about how the chi-coms would come over the hill and how a mortar fell on his buddy since boot camp and then he was gone all the while you watched the stars fall down around you .