Grandboys - What A Legacy - Reprise

Not quite a year ago, I posted a blog titled – Grandboys – What A Legacy. In light of the past week’s events, I feel compelled to use the tag again.

A bit of history may be in order. I grew up hardly knowing my grandparents. My mother’s father died before I was born. Mom always told me how much I would have liked him but, alas, that was not meant to be. His widow (my grandma on my mother’s side and my dad’s parents lived in southern New Jersey. During my childhood days in the 50’s we lived in western upstate New York near Lake Ontario. Although we did visit New Jersey once or maybe twice a year, the distance was simply too great for any more frequency than that. Thus, although I knew them, I did not really have a “relationship” with them. In the 60’s – my adolescent years – we lived in Rhode Island, much closer to New Jersey but by then my remaining grandparents had aged out and were promoted to glory.

In 1966 my family moved to Milton – one of the best things that has happened in my life. Milton was welcoming and became my true home. Sue (born & raised in Milton as were her parents before her) and I married in 1970 and set up shop. We raised two daughters, Amanda & Nicole, who married Milton men and settled down here. They blessed us with two grandsons each. We rejoiced in the opportunity to be primary caregivers for those precious young men from the time they were born. These guys became great friends and very much enjoyed and enjoy playing together. They are each two years apart, providing a nice mix.

End result > we have created very strong relationships with these four guys. Our house is their house, they are very comfortable coming here and now just show up on their own. They know the location of the food and beverages (which we keep stocked to their liking) and simply make themselves at home. We love it.

We enjoyed some wonderful trips with them which further established the bonding and relationship. We found the best arrangement for these trips was to pair up cousins. The two oldest from each family (Ivan & TJ) and the two youngest (Gus & Emmit). Both pairs traveled (separate trips) to Hocking Hills, Ohio with us where Sue and I had discovered a great little town and phenomenal, picturesque hiking. They were great travelers, and we never had disciplinary issues. Ivan & TJ accompanied us in our RV to Indiana Dunes Park on lower Lake Michigan – another great time. We camped in the RV (aptly named Espresso) at Bong Recreational Area with Gus & Emmit and attended the Kenosha area Renaissance Fair. The boys loved it and so did we.

As the boys matured and grew, we ventured a bit further afield. TJ and Ivan flew with us to Salt Lake City. Our accommodations were in Park City – an incredibly beautiful location. Here, my nephew Peter (a professor at University of Utah) introduced them to “real” mountain biking.  This was the first time either TJ or Ivan had flown or seen mountains. This was a life changing trip in many ways (see my blog post – Once Upon the Wasatch – Espresso Shots. (You can find it at cruzanespressoshots.blogspot.com – once there you would need to scroll down to find this specific post)

A few short months later we took Gus & Emmit to Anna Maria Island in Florida for Spring Break. Neither of them had ever flown or seen the ocean so that was an incredible trip as well.

So here we are on Labor Day weekend 2024. These four young men are now 19, 16, 14, & 12. Ivan just moved into his dorm at Platteville, Gus is a junior, TJ will has moved to the high school as a freshman while Emmit moves to the middle school as a 7^th grader. Where has the time gone?

Ivan is essentially gone for now and the other three are very busy young men with sports, music, and a myriad of other activities. I was strongly feeling the end of summer and this time of dispersal closing in. I found my state of nostalgia very powerful. I wanted to do something to bring these four guys together before this next stage of life landed on us. I landed on a breakfast at Denny’s for Sue & I and the boys. Sounds simple but something like this can be a challenge to schedule with the commitments we all have.

As it turned out, last Monday (final week before school) the six of us gathered at Denny’s at 7 a.m. We had a great meal and a wonderful time. It was so meaningful to see these guys all together engaging in their bantering and fun-filled ways. Something to warm the cockles of a grandfather’s heart.

I figured that as soon as we had devoured breakfast that the boys would all disperse to their own activities but to my surprise and joy, they chose to spend the entire day at our house. In fact, they gathered at our house off and on most of the week. So nostalgic and so much fun.

Both Sue and I are bikers (cycling). We involved the boys in this activity early on in their lives and were privileged to help them select bikes as they outgrew bikes as they matured. They are all very good bikers and enjoy this activity a great deal. I often referred to them as my biker gang and have a great picture of all four of  them leaning on their bikes as very young boys. I have had the dream of recreating that picture but never could get the logistics figured out – too many moving pieces. Well, I mentioned this after breakfast last Monday and, to my great satisfaction, the boys were all over it. We grabbed bikes from my garage, trooped over to the Milton College campus and got some great updated shots. They seemed to really enjoy that, and I was thrilled. I have inserted the two pics at the end of this post.

So, in my loquacious way, I have rambled on long enough. To sum up, last week, watching these young men gather again, enjoy each other’s company, play, connect, and want to be together was so heartwarming. What occurred naturally was beyond my wildest expectations.

Yes indeed! Grandboys are awesome and my life has been so much richer because of them. This legacy is pure gold!

 

 

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The Rewards That Mean the Most of All

In his book, The 50 Year Dash, author, Bob Greene, wrote –

“The rewards that mean the most of all, you now understand, are not presented by anyone else. They come to you during the moments you are doing something that you know in your heart is absolutely right. It may be something that other people ridicule or don’t comprehend; it may be something that no one else in the world is even aware you are doing. Something you feel fervently about, something that is almost holy in the meaning to you, in the devotion that you bring to it.  And that others don’t understand - or will never know you’ve done them – does not matter at all. At 50, you don’t have to announce this or explain it to anyone. You know, which is all that matters. The best reward.”

While age 50 has become history to me, these words have stayed with me and, out of the blue, came home to roost about 7:30 a.m. this morning as I was leaving Milton’s Main Street Market Piggly Wiggly after picking up a few items needed at home.

Heading to my car, I passed the bench that is not far from the Pig’s front door. A lady, probably a bit older than me, was sitting there in the sun looking at me very intently. I greeted her and she asked if I recognized her. I replied that I thought she looked familiar but couldn’t place her name or how I might be acquainted with her.

She then told me her first name and where she lived, followed by the question, “Have you ever delivered Meals on Wheels?” My answer was, “Yes, I have delivered Meals on Wheels for a number of years but only occasionally when our church rotation occurred every six or eight weeks.

By then the light in my memory ignited and I recalled her name, and the location of her apartment in the building where she lived. She affirmed my recollection and went on to describe her recent health improvement (she could barely answer the door when I delivered meals over the years) that allowed her to get out and walk some as well as do much more for herself than before. She asked my name and said she had heard that before. She then asked where I lived, what church I belonged to and if it used to host a turkey supper, and other odds and ends. She wanted to know if I knew the time. I looked at my watch and told her. She said she had to get going, got up and walked toward her apartment building.

What a great start to the day. Who would have thought that a routine shopping trip to the Main Street Market would have led to this phenomenal encounter out of the blue?

Or was it out of the blue? Columnist Jenny Anderson says it this way – “This was community. Community is about a series of small choices and everyday actions: how to spend a Saturday, what to do when a neighbor falls ill, how to make time went there is none. Knowing others and being known; investing in somewhere instead of trying to be everywhere. Communities are built, like Legos, one brick at a time. There’s no hack.”

My very positive, heartening interaction this morning was, pure and simple, COMMUNITY. Who knew that an occasional Meals On Wheels delivery over a number of years would engender this encounter? Never, never underestimate the power of your interactions and investment in people and community. “The rewards that mean the most of all come to you during the moments you are doing something that you know in your heart is absolutely right. You don’t have to announce this or explain it to anyone, you know, which is all that matters. The best reward.

After all WE ARE MILTON!