Hello out there,
So, my sister-in-law, just joined the 40's crowd yesterday. She dyed her sandy blonde hair a deep mohogany and has scheduled a tandum sky dive for this Saturday. (I'd like to jump out of a plane too, but I think I'll wait til I'm 50).
This past weekend, we made the long treck up north to Topaz, NV. (where my grandma used to live and I almost killed you on the black ice...Lol...) Anywho, we went to surprise my grandma's little brother for his 80th birthday. All the Ortegas were invited and there were at least 75 to 100 of us there. We arrived Fri., gradually filling up the Lodge (where we spent the night), hoping against the odds that my uncle would not run into any of us so as not to spoil the surprise before our Sat. party. Alas, there were a couple of near misses, but with the help of the entire staff at the lodge, we were able to keep our presence quiet. Incidentally, my uncle Hank is a local celebrity there and as a result, we got the VIP treatment the entire time we were there. My mom won over $1500 at the casino--all was great!
Knowing that we would be heading up there, we booked 3 rooms for our family. At the very last minute, my sis & I decided to rent an RV, so that my 89 year-old grandma & 95 year-old grandpa would be nice and comfy for the trip. We also knew that this would probably be their last trip to the part of the country they love most (the Eastern Sierras). So I grew a set of cajones and drove a 31' Coachmen Chalet Motor Home the entire way up and all the way back. Are you proud of me? By the way, I didn't wreck, dent or even so much as put a pit or scratch anywhere the entire time it was under my comand! Not a single near miss and no one even honked their horn at me! At 41, I learned how to drive a 31' vessel...
My grandma was great all the way up--happy, witty, drinking every mile along the way. But by the time we got there, she began to regress to a defiant teenager state. She refused to drink water (it was 115 degrees easily); she refused to wear her depends or take her cane; she wouldn't rest or shower. My grandpa wasn't enjoying himself cause he would only leave her alone with my aunt and she didn't check in until the next morning. She got so bad, that on the day we left, my aunt took her home in their car, so that my grandpa could go fishing with us in peace on the way home.
We wanted to take my grandpa alone, cause we knew that at 95, this would most likely be his last fishing trip. Are we glad we did... that man opened up and talked the entire way home! He told my sis and her boyfriend where all the secret roads were along the way--best places to fish (and the worst); best places for deer hunting; where the best hot springs were located; old fishing & camping stories. Most of them were stories that we had never heard. Did you know that when he was 7, he lived on a hill in San Pedro and fell as he ran down to watch the French Army arrive at the port during WWI? He showed the scar from where he landed on a rock. They had nightly black outs due to the potential air strikes against LA--the French were our allied support while the US faught overseas. Do you know that when his family moved from LA to Piru, that it took 2 days by horse and buggy? Today it takes 2 hrs. tops depending on traffic. He taught my sis' boyfriend how to properly add a bobber and tie a trebel hook. (We exposed him to fishing a couple of years ago and now he is HOOKED--a fein). We dropped my grandfather off at 1:30am on Monday morning and he had the most happy, appreciative look that we have seen on his face since before my dad got sick.
After a lot of reflecting on this past weekend, I'd like to suggest that you do the same with your family--don't rent an RV and travel to the Sierras (unless you really want to~I highly suggest it). Just spend time with them. Listen to their childhood stories. We get so caught up in our own personal gratifications and daily routines, that we forget that there were generations of our peeps before us. They had their own trials and good times and they seem to come to life when someone shows an interest in it. It saddens me that I won't ever get to share these stories with my own grandchildren, but hopefully I can inspire others to do so...
God Bless you & yours,
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