I’m not sure how it happened, but everyone — L, E, and K — took turns going through Nana’s old jewelry. It’s been stowed away in Papa’s room since they moved in two years ago, and I think it’s only now that they’ve gone through it.
the boy
Crossing Over
The Boy returned to scouting this year after a year's absence (or was it two?), this time joining a troop that includes his three best friends from school. He moved from Bear to WEBELOS (We'll Be Loyal Scouts).
It was a strange scouting year, an abbreviated scouting year, due to covid, but we made it through, learned a thing or two, and most importantly, strengthened friendships.
Nerf Gun
Birthday Present
He's been begging for it for ages now.
"I really want an electric guitar!" became the Boy'smantra. Yet we were afraid that, like so many other interests, it might just fade away, so we told him to use L's old pink guitar to show that he's really interested in playing, committed to playing, disciplined enough for playing.
I'm not entirely sure he proved all those things, but he made a valiant effort. He learned a few chords (really mastering a couple of them) and got to where he could switch back and forth between them. He practiced chromatic scales to get single-string control along with finger sequencing. And he talked about it a lot.
Of course, he had a point: an electric guitar, with its lighter gauge strings, is easier to play than a steel-string acoustic. A nylon-string acoustic/classical guitar would be the easiest and the gentlest on his fingers, but he wanted an electric guitar. Passion is important, and he was passionate about this, and we want him to keep that passion.
Down the Drain
We’ve played soccer in the front yard for countless hours. We’ve fired innumerable shots into our neighbors’ yards. We’ve retrieved every single ball, no matter where it’s gone. Until tonight. L’s shot went wide, sailed into the neighbors’ yard, rolled down the ditch, passed into the culvert, and disappeared, for his culvert doesn’t just pass under his driveway: it empties into a basin with another culvert and the drains into the creek behind our house. That basin is covered with an enormous concrete cover that we could not possibly move to retrieve the ball, so chances are, it’s gone.
That wouldn’t have been a big deal if it had been his old, beat-up, scratched, and scared ball. The ball we’ve kicked into the same neighbors’ yard countless times. But this was his new ball. His birthday gift ball. Which he got only on Friday.
He’s heartbroken about it.
Ninth Party
Nine
Today, the Boy turned nine. It's his last year in single digits, and we're all wondering how we got to this point so quickly. That's the same old story every birthday, though.
This year, most of the gifts from us are soccer-based: a new ball and new nets. He and the Girl tried them out after dinner.
Previous Years
Happy Mess Day
Second Time Around
Third Party
Celebration Day
Birthday
Fifth Birthday Party
Sports and Ice Cream
Seventh Birthday
The Claw
Scouting in a Pandemic
is boring. Well, not necessarily boring, but almost all the trips disappear, pack and den meetings are carefully choreographed disasters of social distancing (always) and mask wearing (when indoors at least), and everyone gets the feeling that scouting is just not what it used to be.
This evening, we had the final pack meeting of the year before the crossing over ceremony later in the month, when E and the other bears move up to Weblos. After that portion of the meeting, we adults talked about what trips we might take next year. Some of the decisions we made:
- Overnight at the Lost Sea, billed as America’s largest underground lake
- Overnight at an aquarium, sleeping in the shark tunnel with sharks swimming all around us
- A hike to the top of Table Rock, a local formation here in the Upstate
- A winter tubing adventure
I told the Boy about these things as we drove home. “I definitely want to sign up next year!”
First Concert
The first concert I ever attended was in Johnson City, Tennessee in about 1985 or 1986. The band was Huey Lewis and the News, and even though I was not the biggest fan, I joined two friends (who were brothers) for the concert. Their dad dropped us off and then met us once it was over.
It wasn’t until a few years later that I went to a concert because I truly loved the band and not simply because I had the chance to see someone live. It was R.E.M. in Knoxville, and it’s a concert I remember to this day.
In college, I got to see a number of bands like the Pixies and U2, but the most exciting for me was Pink Floyd.
But there was always one band missing, always a single concert that I thought, “If I ever get a chance…” My first love. Genesis. Now, there’s no way I’ll ever see the Genesis I’ve always truly loved — the Genesis of the early- to mid-seventies with Peter Gabriel on lead vocals and Steve Hackett on lead guitar. But the genius of the band, musically speaking, has always been the keyboard player, Tony Banks. He’s still with them. Phil Collins can no longer stand for long periods, and Mike Rutherford — who knows? But they’re coming out of retirement for one last tour. And my best friend and I have tickets to see them in Charlotte. And we have an extra ticket, for the Boy’s first concert.
“I’m a little nervous,” he confessed. “It is my first concert. Mama said it will be very loud.”
“It will be,” I confirmed. “But you’ll have ear protection.”