An old saying
seems to sum up how several of us feel after
Tuesday. For the two of the “old ones,” it
goes back a couple of months previous to
yesterday as a little boy joined our clan. At
this point I need to interrupt myself and add
in a couple of things. I know that I never
interrupt myself so please bear with me for a
minute.
I have always
liked kids. Even as a young person, who was
not the best example of a model for Sunday
School behavior, I liked kids and tried to
work with them. I am sure this was a major
part of my (almost) obsessive desire to become
a school band director. My school band
director and my university band director
guided me and down in my core person I wanted
to pass this on. That and the fact that the
world cannot exist without music and I wanted
to be a part of that.
There was very
little thought of having kids of my own. To
get to where I am now wasn’t even close to
being a part of my conscious thought. People
grew up (or appeared to) got married and had
kids. That is the way the world turned, it
just happened so get out of my way I have some
kids to teach. The thought of someday being an
old man and being the patriarch of a large
clan was not a thought that had time to enter
my poor little brain. I was too young to know
that there could be a perfect little boy who
was the cutest, smartest and brightest little
person on the planet. Then a little girl and
another little boy came along and they matched
all that the first one possessed except the
girl was just absolutely, amazingly beautiful.
By this time we had moved to Wewoka, OK and my
life was complete.
Except real life
doesn’t turn out that way. After I almost grew
up I gave a good friend some advice. The
startling part is that I made up this “saying”
out of my own head and it is not only true but
universal. Not meaning to brag because
sometimes even a rookie coming in off the
bench can hit a home run and this is what
happened to me. A musician friend was very
worried about his daughter having her first
baby. She was too young, too inexperienced,
too... fill in the blanks as a very distressed
father whose baby girl seems to have grown up
despite what he thinks. Wellsir, using well
crafted words, (I know, amazing wasn’t it) I
told him that love doesn’t diminish when there
is more than one, it progresses exponentially.
I said he would have more than enough love to
go around and probably a lot left over.
Which brings us
up to Tuesday, March 18. 2014. Annison Grace
was born about 8:30 A.M. and she is my fourth
great grandchild. FOUR! Father’s Day has just
gotten a lot more special. To think that when
my first child was born there could not be any
more love proved how naive I was. All you
parents and grandparents and
great-grandparents know what I mean. All you
others who haven’t gotten there yet have OH so
much to look forward to.
When we have
family gettogethers it is loud, noisy, and
chaotic. There are kids everywhere and they
are becoming fast friends. So far, they really
like being together and no, they do not have a
choice, they have orders, “You Vill Haff Fun!”
and with that they play, run, talk and we eat
a lot. Fortunately we have a super great place
at Sandbur Acres to have these events. The
next event is on Bunny Cake Day and as Sandbur
is in the country, there are many places to
hide eggs. Just this past weekend I found an
egg from last year.
Yessir, I know
that my family is not unique as this sort of
thing goes on all over the world. By writing
about myself maybe I can shine a light for
those who do this and those who would like to.
In movies we see families that get together
and they are usually Irish or Italian. Just in
case Hollywood is reading, other people also
have family events. Hollywood most often shows
dysfunctional families as nearly the norm.
Wellsir, families can also get together in
love and have a happy time.
This whole
effort today is dedicated to those who are
great grandparents, grand parents, parents or
those who want to be. There are very few
things more thrilling than to hear the door
open and a second later hear a little voice
say, “Where’s Pop?” Hurry Madden and Annie,
Pop is waiting.
