I glanced over as she was driving.
My youngest daughter was behind the wheel singing along with her music.
Some grocery bags were in the back seat.
We were on the turnpike heading back to her college.

It seems like only yesterday when we took this drive for the first time.
When in reality an entire year has passed.
This time she was driving the car that will stay with her at school.
This time my husband followed about fifteen minutes behind with the minivan.

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I loved to make learning fun for my children.
It was a privilege to teach them to read.
It was delightful to teach them how to write their name.
Learning colors and shapes and how to count was an adventure.

Since I love words so much, I couldn’t wait for them to love words, too.
Reading to them constantly surely helped.
They loved the sound of the words as we got lost in the wonderful stories.
They loved to point to the words they recognized and tell me what they said.

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It was the sound that attracted me.
It was the crunch.
If freshness had a sound then this was it.
I wanted to try this delicious sounding food.

I look back now and smile at the memory.
I can see myself so clearly sitting on our back porch.
At the round glass top table I watched my aunt enjoy her salad.
I heard the sound of the lettuce as she chewed.

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I have a pet peeve.
I dislike grass clippings.
I should not complain because I am not the one cutting the grass.
In fact I have never cut the grass.

My sons have cut the grass.
My older daughters have cut the grass.
In fact I think that as they each approached driving age, riding the lawn tractor was fun.
My youngest daughter is like me; she has absolutely no desire to ride the lawn tractor.

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I remember my mother’s bread pudding.
I remember it warm out of the oven, with a buttery smell that filled the house.
She had special dish she baked it in along with a pan that she always put underneath.
She put water in the pan, enough to cover the bottom, before placing the dish inside.

I never asked her why she put the dish in a pan with water before putting it in the oven.
I never asked her for the bread pudding recipe.
I was too young to think that having her recipe was important.
She died when I was fifteen and her recipe was never known.

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I cannot imagine that anyone is a fan of washing windows.
Fan or not, it needs to be done.
Sometimes even when the windows are clean, they still look dirty.
Sometimes the outside have splotches of hard water stains that refuse to disappear.

Window panes that should be transparent have water marks that refuse to go away.
Lack of transparency may be frustrating when it comes to window washing.
Lack of transparency is equally frustrating when it comes to real life.
Some wear and tear marks are a good thing.

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We all played the game as children.
Usually the one at the head of the line was chosen.
The others line up behind that person.
The person at the head of the line moves every which way; the others have to mimic him.

Follow The Leader.
A game that is part of most everyone’s childhood.
A game that is as popular as, Mother, May I and Red Light, Green Light.
The rules of Follow The Leader were not terribly difficult.

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The story I read encouraged me.
The follow-up reports that I read disturbed me.
I had to sort through the range of feelings I had concerning the story.
I had to put it all in perspective.

A seventeen-year-old Florida man was being arrested.
This young man had previous arrests for criminal mischief and burglary.
He was being booked for burglary again as this story unfolded.
This particular burglary was a parole violation.

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When you are the oldest of five children, you have an interesting place in the family.
When two of your siblings are brothers, you learn to appreciate all sorts of things.
Games become a competition between the boys and the girls.
Action figures and superheroes take on new meanings.

It was a movie with action figures that started it all.
Six main characters, all named and suited with a different a color.
My children knew the characters; my sons had the action figures.
They all wanted to see the movie.

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