When I was in third grade the class hamster had babies. Wanting a pet, Mom and Dad let us have two of them. Tiny was Eric’s and Butterball was mine. Summer came and it was time to go camping at Garner. Since the whole family and friends were going we had no one to watch the hamsters so we decided to take them with us. The first night came and we put the hamsters cage in the tent with us. Tiny and Butterball were night creatures and with Dad being such a light sleeper that didn’t workout to well. So Dad decided that they would sleep in the van for the rest of the trip. A few nights went by and everything worked out great. One morning we all got up and had breakfast and Eric was sent to the van to go feed the hamsters. He pulled out the cage, lifted up Tiny and dropped him with a THUD in the cage and said, "I don’t think I need to feed them." Apparently we forgot to leave the windows to the van open the night before. My father took the cage from Eric, walked over to the woods, and threw everything inside the cage into the woods, dead hamsters included. I was so devastated over the whole thing I kept yelling "You just threw them in the woods, you just threw them in the woods!" So Mom made Dad go into the woods to find the deceased Tiny and Butterball. After they were found us kids decided that they needed a proper funeral. We dug a hole to put them in. The Suchma boys made a cross out of sticks and string. We all said a few words in remembrance of the hamsters. Then Leslie finished up the grave side service with a beautiful rendition of Amazing Grace. That will always be the summer of the hamster funeral.