After Kathie and I married our family began to grow in numbers. First our son was born followed by a daughter. Then there was a five year break before our second daughter made her appearance.
So for the first eighteen years the male/female ratio in our family was pretty close. We males were outnumbered but not too badly and we were able to hold our own.
And then it happened. Our son completed his senior year in high school so off to college he went and you can already guess where that put me. Yep, I was expected to co-exist in a household of all women.
Everyone of them fluctuated as their hormones fluctuated and in case you might not have noticed two of them were going through the experience of being a teenager. Yikes!
I will admit that there were several times during those years that I contemplated traveling deep, deep into Alaska to do a little panning for gold. But I fought off the temptation and remained on the home front and tried my best to be a faithful husband and father.
We all survived the experience and now when we gather at family occasions sometimes the idea that men come from Mars and women come from Venus is reflected in the memories that we share. In spite of the different planet existences we have all managed to continue loving each other!
For around twenty years now Kathie and I have been empty nesters and the male/female ratio has been equal. Well that was until last week. Let me explain.
Our oldest daughter was scheduled to visit the Mayo Clinic for a follow up exam resulting from a previous medical issue six months prior. Since I have been having eye issues our daughter suggested that I ride along to Rochester and get a second opinion on my cornea problem.
Hey, why not I thought. We have been having this never ending winter and a trip to the Mayo would allow me to travel south for a few days. Not as far south I would have hoped for but south none the less. So I agreed.
Our youngest daughter had worked for nine years at Mayo so she thought what a great opportunity to ride along and visit with old friends.
My wife, Kathie, wouldn’t have been happy to stay home alone so we invited her along too.
And before you know it without meaning to we had scheduled a twenty-year family reunion of the one male co-existing with three females!
Ah, but what a difference. Not once during that four day mini-vacation to the south did I contemplate panning for gold in deep, deep Alaska. In fact my heart was touched when my two daughters pulled up in front of a liquor store and entered it leaving Kathie and I in the car.
As we sat in the car waiting for those two to return I thought back to their teenage years when Kathie and I laid the law down about there being no teenage drinking in our family. So they followed the rule very precisely and they didn’t drink with the family instead they drank with their friends! 🙂
As I look back now I realize they were educating us on the ways of teenagers.
The door swung open and out they came and what did they carry that warmed my heart so? It was a twelve pack of Coors beer.
I dislike the taste of beer but there is one beer that I learned to drink when I went to grad school in Oklahoma. Yep, you guessed it….Coors. And my daughters were so thoughtful that they declined to buy their favorite brew and bought Coors instead.
Well that started the four days off on a positive note even though I only drank three beers during the trip. It was the thought that counts.
The medical trip was a blast. A storm was scheduled to arrive during the weekend so we were forced to leave on a Friday, spend Saturday and Sunday in a motel and visit the Mayo early Monday morning.
Normally I use my credit card once or twice a week when I’m home but it got used many, many times during that Rochester ‘vacation’. In fact I was expecting that the credit card folks would send me a message inquiring about the unusual activities on my credit card.We shopped till we dropped. Stuffed ourselves with the motel continental breakfasts. We ate all the other meals at various restaurants and watched Netflix in the motel late into the night
When Monday arrived we headed for the Mayo Clinic. While our oldest daughter was being examined our youngest daughter was giving us a tour of the clinic.
Far off sounds of piano music and singing voices could be heard. As we rounded a corner in the lobby a grand piano with people gathered around it came into view
Our daughter informed us that every Monday a group of ladies dressed in red rolled out the grand piano and invited passersby to join in the singing. The pianist was an eighty-five year old lady who played by ear and seemed to know every song ever written. Although when I requested the song Blowing In The Wind she had to admit that tune had temporarily escaped her memory.
It was an old fashioned l960’s Hootenanny minus the guitars. The ladies invited us to take off our coats and sing along. When I removed my coat one of the ladies in charge squealed for joy because I was wearing a red shirt similar to theirs. We fit into the group immediately. 🙂
Kathie and I sing with a group in our local nursing home so it didn’t take us long to get comfortable. The big difference was our nursing home audience includes around a dozen spectators while the Mayo Clinic lobby held fifty to a hundred viewers. Some were seated and others were standing or walking by but enjoying the music at the same time.
It was touching to know we were bringing a little bit of musical joy to people that were suffering a health problem as well as family members that were their care givers.
The reunion ended on Tuesday after I had seen the eye specialist and the loaded van including several left over bottles of Coors headed back north to our homes.
As we sped along the interstate I began to daydream about our next family outing. Why not get the two males (myself and our son) and the three females (Kathie and our two daughters) together for a reunion vacation? That could really be fun.
Oh, wait a minute. The family has expanded since those early years. Our son has a wife and four children. Each of our daughters have a spouse and two children. That means our original family of five has increased to sixteen!
I was worried about credit card issues with our Mayo Clinic vacation. A family vacation of sixteen would surely alarm my credit card company.
Maybe we could all agree on meeting at a park. Each family could bring a dish to pass. We could play bocce ball and roast some marshmallows over a fire. I’d supply the Coors beer.
I’ll have to give that some more thought. 🙂
Until next time.
