Summer Vacation - Day 5

Day Five - South Carolina

It is easy to get lost in these woods. So easy to snuggle on the porch or into the sofa pillows at the cottage, sipping coffee and reading. Joyce has a library in her house. It is upstairs to the right of the stairs next to her computer room and the bathroom. It reminds me of an attic room with sloping ceilings and a small window. The door to the room is a glass door that lets you see in at all the beautiful books. They are everywhere--on the bookshelves lining the walls. There are books on the table in front of the small couch, on the windowsill, and on the floor. There are new books and old books. It is almost too much for our family of readers. When we miss Madison, we know to check the library. She has been found there curled in a chair, nose in a book Joyce has recommended.

I am reading Inkheart. It is a title that I have come across researching books for my children. It is one that Joyce has recommended to me, and I am lost in its pages, enjoying the tale of Meggie and Mo. I have already read Briar Rose. I am not sure that I can go back to the library for there are so many books that I have not read. But it calls to me, and the world outside disappears when in there. Plus, we are alone in these woods with solitude and plenty of time to enjoy the written word or each other.

We went into Charleston, South Carolina today to visit Joyce's children. There is Jason, who is two years younger than Rusty. He has a wife, Lori, and three children, a son, Joel 14, and two daughters, Ellie 8 and Margie 2. Jason still reminds me of Andre Agassi, and it is unsettling, yet exciting until I remember that he is just Jason and not my tennis idol. Joyce's daughter, Mandy, and her husband Chuck have two daughters, Macie, who is almost two and the spitting image of her father, and new to this world Evie, who was born April 30th. We went to Mandy's house for our reunion because Jason's is under construction as he works this summer on expanding his abode.

Mandy's home is a child's paradise. There are toys in the girls' rooms, toys in the play area off of the garage, toys in the living room in an overstuffed toy box, and there is a huge play structure in the fenced-in backyard. The children looked at one another, some meeting for the first time, others getting reacquainted, and then they were off. Children being children in all their innocence.

The adults settled into the living room and kitchen to catch up and for husbands to met husbands and/or wives. Groups were formed, and the talk was of jobs, children, and the past. I grew up with Jason and Mandy. I was older, but not so old that playing with each other was a problem. I can remember Mandy and me against our two brothers. We would push their buttons, knock on the bedroom door and then run, follow them when they wanted to be left alone. We would come together and play board games or cards, and as we got older, we would talk. Our parents were just that, older people who didn't understand us or the way of childhood. How different it all seems as we mature. Now I can sit and talk to Joyce and James for hours.

We feasted on ham and pole beans and took turns holding the baby. It was nice to be with family in a new generation and sweet that the new generation loved each other as we loved each other. It is the right time to come together, and I am so glad that we have done so.