Today, the beach motel opens. Another summer begins, even as the cool spring lingers. I work the evening shift, and I’m happy to have the job.
It’s my 65th summer on Spaceship Earth. I’m fully aware that the seasons are numbered, like the fastballs in a pitcher’s arm. You don’t know how many you have left.
“No matter how long you live, it goes by fast.” My favorite great-grandmother — the only great-grandmother I knew — said that. Most people don’t get to know a great-grandmother.
(Cora Hayden was my great-grandmother’s name. Her maiden name was Cora Cash. She was indeed a grand lady, matriarch of a great family. I was a child and she was a very old woman, so it’s not as if we had any deep conversations. Or any conversations at all, of more than a few words. Adults talked; children listened. Still, my life would have been much smaller except for her.)
I take each season as it comes now. “It’s a long season, and you’ve gotta trust it.” On Opening Day, all things seem possible, no matter the number of seasons. Is it the home runs you remember, or the strikeouts?
Yes, I’m not writing well right now. But some days and nights are like that.
— John Hayden
Living Simply And Still On The Grid 
Yes each season that comes by with age we just take it as it comes. I hope you have a pleasent season at the beach Motel…. Dont work too hard! 🙂
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Thanks Sue!
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I knew a great-grandmother and two great-grandfathers yet both of my grandfathers were dead before I could know them. My great-grandmother was Mary Magdalene Schober, nee Kraus; I called her Mamie. I was nearly 13 when she died and I had spent a lot of time with her when I was a small child. I treasure that time I had with her and my great-grandfather, Peter Schober. They both accepted me just as I was. I still miss them today. My favorite Mamie saying: “Women’s faults are many, men have but two; everything they say and everything they do!” Lots of strong women in my family.
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Thanks, Theresa! The mysteries of life! Many people know their grandparents. But because of aging, most of our great-grandparents have passed on before we’re born. Something special about knowing a great-grandparent!
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I only met three of my four grandparents, but my Grandfather was born in 1895, and was my favorite relative. (don’t tell anyone in my family I said that)
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Hey Mark, now you and I can say that we were “born in the last century.” Although I’m not sure i want to think about that very much.
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