In the Country

Things are busy for everybody in our family so we are having fewer week-ends at the place we call "the Apple House". We call it that because it is on the edge of other peoples orchards in rural PA. So the week-end we did get away together was precious - not that we did anything particularly special - we didn't - its the joy of being together.

I have to add - we can be together without the sound of newscasters blaring out the latest - their voices filling the space - because we have never hooked up an antenna or cable. We choose our own entertainment - either the delicious quiet, general conversations or we watch movies - from old classics to a newer run DVD from Blockbuster. Last year when Karen added her set of I Claudius to the Apple House video library, I relished every moment of revisitng that PBS classic.

When these family times happen I often think of Thornton Wilder and his play Our Town - when he has the Stage Manager tell the young heroine - Emily, I believe - who wants to go back to the living for just one day - "chose an ordinary day - that will be special enough."

In the fast paced life of today sometimes our whole family ( the East Coast contingent anyway ) is lucky enough to have an ordinary day together it is very special.

These days with grand-daughter, Juliana temporarily further East in London - and our West Coast group, daughter Robin, her husband, Brad, and their 3 sons, Jamie, Danny and Scottie holding firm in SF. Jim and I treasure all moments "in the bosom" of any part of the family.

I tell a story about my grandmother, Ellie Hall Baer, which starts off - I lived one block and two houses from Granny - and I could go there anytime I wanted to. Never realized that would be "once upon a time" in my own life.

( pictures; Jim, Jr works on a class he is teaching at Georgetown U., Jim, Sr. catches up on journal reading, no TV but we do have wifi - a concession to modern reality - Karen, Monica and Alison juggle laptops and search the internet, Leia parries with the ball, hoping someone will toss one for her.)