Daughter # 2 is 23 and excited to be buying her first car. New.
My oldest 25 and going to make me a grandfather in September.
I remember sitting with her on the couch when she was 1 or 2 and had chicken pox, watching the latest Blizzard to End All Blizzards march across the U.S.
And scarlet fever with them. Boyfriend breakups.
Vacations at the Maryland shore. Asateague. Williamsburg.
Their wonder at Niagara Falls. How quickly bleach will destroy a stainless steel paring knife. And in the butterfly they hatched from a caterpillar.
Teaching them to fish (oh you dirty bird) and shoot and backpack. How to start a fire with 1 match. And keep it going in the rain.
That day feeding the geese. And a wild horse dropping a mouthful of grass in my lap through the open car window.
It's not where you've been with them or what you've seen.
But how they remember it.
I told them none of this calling me grandpa or poppop stuff.
I am to be referred to as Dude.
Hooboy.
