Several years ago before Nate was born, Stacy, Doug and Erin lived in Colorado. Stacy had a medical issue so I flew from LA to spend two weeks with her and her family to help and just to be there. I have many fond memories of that trip.
One thing is something Doug said to me after I had been there a few days. He told me how impressed he was that I would get on the floor to sit and play games with Erin.
Now, rewind several years to when I was 16, living with my parents, and very much (I think) a typical teenager.
David had joined the Air Force and later married Rose. They lived in a duplex at Goodfellow Air Force Base (now called Lackland AFB).
Wayne and Debbie invited me to drive in their brown Pinto from Douglasville, GA, to visit David and Rose staying in their home on the base. Along for the ride was, of course, my little nephew, Daryl, who was about a year old. (In those days we didn’t have car seats for babies so he mostly set and Debbie’s lap or Wayne’s when Debbie drove for a while.)
(Note: That was the first time I had ever been to Dallas, TX, making a detour for Wayne Wayne’s quick reunion with an old friend.)
Across the street where David lived was a park/playground. Once, during the visit from Rose’s mother who we met for the first time, we walked across the street to the playground.
We had a lot of fun with Daryl! I’d climb to the top of the sliding board, and Wayne would carefully hand me Daryl. I placed him between my legs with my arms around his little waist and down we’d go. He loved it. Rose’s mother was there for one of those outings too the playground.
That was probably in July, 1972.
By October, I had met and married Danny. David told me that, when they told Rose’s mother I had gotten married, she was shocked and said, “THAT little girl got married??” She could only picture me on the playground and on the slide having a great time.
I guess some things never change! I’d still love to be able to play with my grandkids like I used to. ❤️