Walking away from school this morning, with a couple of moms. One of the moms had her dad along with, too. They were joking the usual dad joke, about how kids are so coddled these days, what with being walked to the kindergarten line by their mom (who drove them to the school). Why, back in his day, he walked himself to school, 5 miles uphill each day, etc….
We were laughing along with them. And, he said that he didn’t remember ever walking her to elementary school, but he did remember how, when she was much older, he had to walk her to the door of the high school to make sure she went in to take her makeup final exams, after she skipped the original exams & he called the principal to arrange for her to be allowed to take them on another day.
She said something like, “Well, I graduated anyway, didn’t I?” And, I said, “And, it looks like she’s turned out pretty good, in the long run, hasn’t she?”. They both smiled at that.
It just got me to missing my dad. And, being happy for her that she still had hers.
Then, just as I said goodbye to them & was turning away, thinking about missing my dad & how life goes by so fast & how ‘don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone’, a woman walked by (presumably after dropping someone off for school), holding a baby in her arms, just starting out in the world.
As I left the parking lot, XTC’s “Love on a Farmboy’s Wages” was on the CD player. I passed the crossing guard & waved to him, as they were singing “I’d be a rich man, if I could” & wondered about the crossing guard here nearer the end of his life than the beginning, retired, flirting & joking (in his own 1940’s way) with the moms as we walk our kids into school each morning.
Sigh. Must stop wasting moments.
