How do you like them apples?
9/30/2007 - 18 Tishrei, 5768The little beauty inspired a desire to take a bite from the apples of her cheeks. Of her eyes nothing could be known, except that they must be very large, and that they had magnificent lashes. She was asleep.
She slept with that slumber of absolute confidence peculiar to her age. The arms of mothers are made of tenderness; in them children sleep profoundly.
The above words appear in Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo. They refer to Cosette.
The most difficult part of this weekend for me, as I celebrated my 20th high school reunion with a lot of former classmates, was seeing the children, whether they were in photos in wallets, ‘in tow’ or ‘due soon’. Several classmates joked I had the best of both worlds. I could play with my niece and nephews, and then leave them with my brother and sister-in-law.
Don’t get me wrong. I love being Uncle Johnny to three wonderful kids. I do notice they aren’t always wonderful, and I’m happy I’m not the one who has to deal with them at those times. But I’m also not the one that gets to hear the word, “Daddy.”
I’m not as young as I was 10 or 15 years ago, but then again, I’m not too old either. It could still happen. But I see Hwy 40 on the horizon.
On the bright side, I did manage to have a lot of fun during the weekend, and possibly reestablish some old friendships. The most interesting part may have been talking with former classmates I probably never talked to once during the four years of high school. I knew their names, they knew mine, but we weren’t in the same circles. But with 20 years gone, the old cliques no longer mattered.
We were also given a tour of the school this morning. There’s been a lot of recent construction, and there are parts of the school that are radically different, while other parts look exactly as they did 20 years ago.
The Photography room was remodeled three years ago as the darkrooms were turned into closets. The class is of course all digital now - and they have about 20 computers in the room. With a beauty that inspires you to take a bite from the Apples. They were all asleep though, and there was no time in the tour to turn them on.