Matching Tracksuits

Month: April 2021

The Unexpected

Sunday 11 April 2021

Our neighbor, Mr. F, has always been something like a grandfather to E. The Boy drops everything to go help him wash his truck or clean their camper. Whenever Mr. F is on his boat, E was there, “helping.” When Mr. F and his wife, Mrs. P, go on long camping trips, Mr. F hires E to keep up with the mail. Every birthday and Christmas, the kids can count on gifts from Mr. F and Mrs. P, and they’ve come to both our kids’ soccer games to cheer them on. They are the best neighbors one could ever hope for.

Mr. F went into the hospital Friday. Last night, Mrs. P came over to our house to ask us to pray for him. “It seems bad,” she said. As K was putting E to bed, she told him that Mr. F was in the hospital and not doing well. He was soon weeping inconsolably. This morning, K took a phone call from Mrs. P in the living room and came back in tears. “Mr. F died this morning.”

I wrote the first paragraph in the present tense because it’s still unreal that he’s gone so suddenly. Just a little over a week ago, he and his wife were on a camping trip with family. Friday I’d spoken to him briefly as I borrowed his truck for the thousandth time at least to go get more mulch. At some point last week, he waved at me as I worked outside with his usual, cheerful, “Hey there, neighbor!”

Cars were parked along the road and in their driveway all day today as people dropped in to offer their condolences. Mr. F was a loved and admirable man, and the world was a better place when he was in it.

Busy Saturday

Saturday 10 April 2021

Today was one of those days that the camera never really comes out because it’s all chaos and business anyway. K had showings in the morning and in the afternoon; E helped around the house in the morning and then spent the afternoon with friends; L helped enormously with the housework; I was the one at home most of the day, doing laundry, cleaning bathrooms, trying to spray for carpenter bees between sprinkles of rain, disassembling an old computer (i.e., removing all hard drives) so we can finally dispose of it.

The only picture from today was of the computer. I thought that was a useless picture.

Instead, here’s one of the view from my kitchen when I first moved to Lipnica Wielka in 1996. That old primary school got remodeled and became a flashy new primary school that was much bigger, and included apartments on the top floor, where I lived when I returned to Poland in the early 2000s. I found this picture going through old pictures, which I then scanned this week.

Return to Dupont

Friday 9 April 2021

“You guys from out of town?” the cyclist asked coming to a slow stop as he navigated the steep downhill that we were climbing.

“Not really — we’re from Greenville.” I figured being only 50 miles away doesn’t exactly make us tourists.

“Well, most people around here go the opposite way on this loop and go down this hill,” he said, I suppose trying to be helpful, but it came across to me as a little — I don’t know, annoying somehow.

“But what about those of us who enjoy hard climbs?” I wanted to say, but thinking I might be only speaking for myself, I said nothing.

“Yes, it seems like it would be more fun,” K agreed.

Our interlocutor headed off down the hill, and added, as if he’d read my annoyance and wanted to soothe it and simultaneously aggravate it, “Of course, it’s your choice.”

Just before December, we went to Dupont forest for some cycling. It wasn’t exactly what we’d planned. But since then, the Boy has asked us several times when we’re heading back. Today, we finally made it.

And afterward, there was mulch to spread and bikes to wash.

Spring Bed

Thursday 8 April 2021

We’ve been trying to get the flower beds in shape for spring. We’ve decided not to plant any vegetables this year, but we’re not totally neglecting everything.

Today, I worked on the big bed at the base of our driveway. There were a lot of leaves to remove, a lot of weeds to pull — and I didn’t even spread any mulch or take a before picture. I guess this is as close as it gets.

The Day After Easter

Monday 5 April 2021

A bit of relaxation in the morning.

A little exploration in the afternoon.

A little soccer in the evening.

Regionals 2021 Day 2

Saturday 3 April 2021

The Girl’s team today had a rough time of it. During their first game, they were up one set 11-4, but they just couldn’t put it away. In the second game, they were up 24-19 and ended up losing it 26-28. That means they had four set points and couldn’t convert. That frustrated L to no end. They won the final game in straight sets, but it was by far the weakest team we’d seen in a long time. Still, a win is a win.

In the break between game one and two, I walked down the street to see where Papa’s parents used to live. I know Papa lived in a couple of houses in the area growing up, but the only house I have any connection to — any memory of — is the small now-yellow house on Izard Street.

Down the street stands an abandoned building that I seem to remember as a store that my cousins and I used to visit to buy a Three Muskateers candy bar and a Mountain Dew.

Tea Party Concluded

Friday 2 April 2021

Students today finished working on the enigmatic twenty-fourth chapter of Mockingbird, which includes this passage that stumps all the kids every year:

Mrs. Merriweather nodded wisely. Her voice soared over the clink of coffee cups and the soft bovine sounds of the ladies munching their dainties. “Gertrude,” she said, “I tell you there are some good but misguided people in this town. Good, but misguided. Folks in this town who think they’re doing right, I mean. Now far be it from me to say who, but some of ‘em in this town thought they were doing the right thing a while back, but all they did was stir ’em up. That’s all they did. Might’ve looked like the right thing to do at the time, I’m sure I don’t know, I’m not read in that field, but sulky… dissatisfied… I tell you if my Sophy’d kept it up another day I’d have let her go. It’s never entered that [head] of hers that the only reason I keep her is because this depression’s on and she needs her dollar and a quarter every week she can get it.”

“His food doesn’t stick going down, does it?”

That last line — “His food doesn’t stick going down, does it?” — always leaves students flummoxed, and this year was no exception.

What makes this passage so tricky is the intentional pronoun/antecedent that those in the conversation are employing. Like good, genteel Southern ladies, they can’t be said to be gossiping since they’re not naming names, and no true lady would gossip. But that is of course what they’re doing, and though they’re not using anyone’s name,

The Tea Party

Thursday 1 April 2021

Few chapters are as initially bewildering as the tea party scene in chapter 24 of Mockingbird. It makes little sense because the women are all intentionally being somewhat obtuse, and while they all understand what they’re talking about, Scout is completely lost — as are most of the students.

Our first task was to break it into manageable sections. Afterward, we focused on chunk 1, which is about some previously unknown character named J. Grimes Everett and someone or something known as “those poor Mrunas.”

It’s all a mystery to them, and they work through it meticulously, discovering things here and there with me walking around offering a bit of guidance.

“Mrs. Merriweather says, ‘Not a white person’ll go near ’em but that saintly J. Grimes Everett.’ What is the antecedent of ’em in that sentence?” I ask one group.

“Mrs. Merriweather says, ‘Not a white person’ll go near ’em but that saintly J. Grimes Everett.’ What two important inferences can we make from this statement?” I ask another group.

We’ll finish up the work tomorrow.