Under the Stars

Under the Stars

It’s been a while since Cindy and I have been on a picnic.  It’s been even longer since we’ve been on a picnic at night.  So that made tonight the first of its kind since we enjoyed Gator Tails from Joe’s Deli and a six-pack of ice-cold beer on the lawn in front of the student union for a Sunday night concert, a tradition while we were undergraduates at the University of Florida.

The differences between tonight and those nights of almost 40 years ago were many.  The Gator Tail, six-pack and concert were now a turkey sub, a pair of Diet Cokes and a movie. Another difference?  Our backs are no longer able to hold up sitting on a blanket for two hours.    We were barely 20 in college; today?...well, do the math.*  One more?  We had a very special someone with us, and I’m here to tell you he had the time of his life. 

*I said that for Cindy’s sake.  I have no problem telling you I’m 58. 

I’ll leave Cindy’s age a mystery.  Give it a go, Nancy Drew.

What rambunctious four-year old wouldn’t enjoy picking out the meal for the evening, watching an animated movie (The Croods) with his grandparents and generally being treated like a prince for several hours?  Certainly not Krischan.  

Krischan loved it.  As an added bonus at the point in the night when his back was growing tired from sitting on the blanket, he had good ole G-Pa to lean back on.  Apparently all the jumping up and down in the ‘bounce house’ before the movie took a little more out of him than he was counting on.  Then again, maybe it was the field trip his Yia-Yia (Cindy) took him on earlier in the day to see the dinosaur exhibit at the Fernbank Science Center in Atlanta, or perhaps working with her at her store for a few hours later in the afternoon.  Krischan somehow managed to make it to the end of the movie, but it was only a couple of minutes after we got home before he was out for the night.  I can’t say I blame him with the busy day he had.

It’s nights like these I wish being a grandparent was a legitimate vocation.

It’s nights like these I wish there were more nights like these.

It’s nights like these I wish being four years old could last a lifetime; at least the lifetime of a certain set of grandparents who had the time of their lives seeing their four-year old grandson having the time of his life.

After all, isn’t that what grandparents are supposed to do?