Sixty Years Later

In the summer of 1964, I was getting ready for my first year of high school. It’s a significant event in every kid’s life. New school. New building to navigate. New friends to make. Nervous about being accepted. Teachers who are going to be tougher than those you left behind in elementary school. I walked to elementary school. I had to take a city bus to high school. I was entering maybe the toughest phase of life, teenage years. Now, our oldest granddaughter is getting ready for high school next month. Her first fourteen years now seem to have gone by in flash. We tried to be as big a part of her life as possible, even though she spent eight years living in Texas. Visits back and forth and FaceTime were a big help. Now she lives close by, but I fear she will be moving away.

Her world will be changing. I selfishly feel we will become a lesser part of her life. We don’t want to become the feared “obligation”. We’ve become closer in the last few years. We text and FaceTime and see her more often. I never knew my grandfathers. Since I became one, I realize what I missed. I never had a sister. Having four granddaughters is something I never imagined. Being on the opposite ends of life, makes time with them precious. I want them to have memories of my wife Maureen and me that they can look back on and say, in their way, we were cool.

Times have changed and stayed the same since that long ago summer. We had the Beatles. She has Taylor Swift. We had transistors radios. She has an iPhones. The country was getting over the death of a president back then. Today we are going through  some of the most traumatic political times in our history. High school years can bring discovery and fun, but also difficult times trying to navigate life under pressures kids never felt before. Our son and his wife will have to deal with all that stuff just as all parents do. Grandparents can let them do the tough stuff. We get to do the fun stuff.

These next four years will go by quickly. Tough classes, class trips, school dances, ball games, the prom, boyfriends. I know there could be difficult times for her. Kids can be jealous and petty over things caused by their own insecurity. Social Media being something never imagined decades ago. After yet another flash, there will be college and the rest of her life. She is bright, athletic, and, of course, pretty. We are immensely proud of her, as we are of all four girls. They will be going through this phase of life in the next few years and we will have the same feelings. I look forward to what ever they let us share in their lives. I hope as they and we grow older they will have memories of how much we loved them sixty years later.