Fun Sunday with the Grandkids
One of my favorite writers is a man named Dave Barry who wrote a humor column for the Miami Herald but is now retired. His stories are still published by the newspaper under the heading “Dave Barry Classics.” Since I am running out of brain cells and find it challenging to write a new essay each month for oldartguy.com, I retrieved some of my earlier writings, mostly about my grandkids. Although they may not be considered “Classics” they hopefully will generate a laugh or two, and people with grandkids will be able to relate. The following story was written in 2013 when Hazel was 5 and Hank was 3.
Fun Sunday with the Grandkids
Getting to Long Beach in California traffic is about a two day drive from San Clemente, so we got what we thought was an early start. Our plan was to stop at a McDonald’s for lunch when we got off the freeway near our destination. Evidently the closest McDonald’s to Long Beach is in Barstow, so we decided to have lunch at the theater rather than risk missing the start of the show.
There wasn’t a large selection on the menu for kids. It consisted of a hot dog or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Both of the kids decided on the PBJ which cost a very “reasonable” $6.50 for a half sandwich. However, with that they each got an 8 oz. apple juice and a 5 gallon beach bucket, which we enjoyed lugging around for the rest of the afternoon. The buckets did come in handy to hold the PBJ sandwiches because the kids didn’t like them. For some reason we foolishly thought they might get hungry and want them later, but that idea didn’t pan out.
At intermission I went to the snack bar to purchase some candy. Now this isn’t something a grandparent should ever admit supplying a kid, but I thought it might help keep Hank awake because he normally takes a nap in the afternoon. Due to the length of the line, I was late returning and missed a good portion of the third act. Why do I always get behind someone who buys a bottle of water and a churro and pays for them with a credit card? Not surprisingly my tardiness didn’t endear me to the 140 people I had to crawl over to get back to my seat in the middle of the row.
The final act of the show was equal in length to Gone With the Wind, but it mercifully ended sometime before Monday. On the way out of the theater, Patti bought the kids a snow cone that came in a souvenir cup with one of the characters from the show. This decision of hers ranks right up there with the invention of the Edsel. Since we had exhausted our cash supply, we had to charge the $24 cost, which answered my question about why people pay with a credit card (see paragraph above).
After a fun filled day, both kids fell asleep on the drive home which was the best part of the day for me. We’ll worry about cleaning up the snow cone mess later.
enough