Had a very smiley morning with my folks today. Have been taking Mum shopping often on a Thursday morning and today Dad came along too. Mainly for the fun of taking Miss 5 into school – though I cleverly forgot it was photo day and the usual half hour wouldn’t happen. Nevertheless content, we pottered off to Midland Gate and while Dad took a seat, Mum and I went off to hunt down the things she wanted.
We returned about half an hour later to find Dad and the fellow beside him chortling their heads off most delightedly. Mum didn’t recognise him and when we got close Dad introduced him… within moments of connecting about waiting for wives, they’d figured out they were boys in Carnarvon together… they didn’t have specific memories of each other, but had reminisced over people and places and shared memories of local events… like when the kids from the two schools opposite each other would come out at recess and throw rocks at each other over the road! Their mothers would have been crazy mad at the time and there they were cackling away as though it had been the time of their lives.
That set Dad on a roll…
Over coffee I got to hear a bunch of new boyhood stories triggered by this chance meeting. It reminded me of Sunday nights at my Grandpa and Granmas, listening to Granpas endless supply of stories to chuckle over… even the ones that weren’t chuckle-worthy in the happening, somehow became so when viewed through the lens of time. Not all Dad’s stories are chuckle fests, but they all – even the one that bought a tear this morning – carry his sense of perspective, acceptance and good humour.
I’ve often heard people say to me that I’d laugh over the things that drove me nuts… some of that I can see as true and already taking place, and other things I cant yet – but man I hope I’ll look back over with the same amusement and insight as they…