きののばんぼくはたべたばんごあはんいっしょうぼくのおじちゃんとおばちゃん。 おじちゃんとおばちゃんしゃべたむこしのせいかつ。
Hier je suis mange ainsi que mon grands-parents.
Grandma and Grandpa with baby me.
私の祖父母と私。
Mes grands-parents et moi.
Last night I had dinner with mom’s parents Grandma and Grandpa Barrow. It was the first time I’ve seen them in over a year.
Met at their new apartment. They recently moved out of their picturesque house in Evanston to 1440 Sheridan in Wilmette. I saw the place once last fall before I left, but it was completely vacant of furniture then.
Grandma gave me the grand tour when I arrived, and seeing the paintings, pictures, chandeliers and other knick-knacks brought along made the place feel like the resurrected version of their dead home. Similar to what the disciples likely felt when they saw the resurrected Jesus,
“Hey, that dude looks familiar.”
“Yes, Peter it’s me Jesus.”
“Whoa, of course it is, but you look a little different somehow.”
“Yes, Peter I died and have now risen again in a form inspired, but different from my original, akin to the Barrow’s new apartment in Wilmette.”
After the tour, we sat down and had drinks. Grandpa whipped up a “dirty” martini for me. We discussed my past year and coming one, as well as catching up on how the other Barrow progeny have been spending their time. Apparently one has shot above 6′2” feet now, while another studied bartending over the summer and another is making this stupid, selfish trip to teach in China and avoid the real world and responsibility for yet another year.
Ed’s note, that last “one” was not the opinion of my Grandparents.
Dinner was at the North Shore’s closest equivalent to an Italian bistro [more aesthetics than the food, but nobody's perfect] Convito Italiano. We discussed many important topics, most of which were lost in the aftermath of the gin mixed with the present of the Pinot, but some which stuck were the stories of their childhood, which I shall now relate.
Once upon an innocent time in a village known as Oak Park [aka fairyland], Patsy and Charles were born.
Unbeknownest to our hero and heroine, the adults of the world had gotten themselves mixed up into something called the “Great Depression.”
Since there was not much money to go around, Patsy’s family passed their days playing cards from morning tilll night. This suited the future mathematician just fine. From time to time she also visited the lake at “No Man’s Land” which oddly enough was next to where she’d later live.
This era was also the birth of moving pictures. For a quarter a piece Charles and Patsy’s families were able to see movies taking them through time to places all over the world – many spots which the couple would later visit as adults.
They made it to high school in a period when folks were worried about big ideas like “war,” which meant nobody was thinking about those “teens.” The word “teenager” didn’t even exist. There was no bother to them and they enjoyed being ignored. It gave them time to jitterbug, chase fair haired girls at school dances and scandalously ride in Buzzy’s convertible over a golf course.
… to be continued.
