Nostalgia in the Ordinary

I got to have a sleepover with my youngest grand this past weekend, and it WAS grand! He hadn’t been over in a while, and we had to make up for lost time. So we puzzled, and played Uno (I don’t mind it), Quiddler (love it even though he beat me fair and square), Old Maid and Go Fish, both of which were in boxes so old they were crumbling. I realized that we’ve been playing those card games, some grandkid and me, for about 18 years. And there they were, making an encore appearance, and even though I don’t especially like either game, I DO love the boy. So we played, and the memories conjured were fun and lovely.

While he does get to do things at Nini and Papa’s that are different from home, the bedtime at our house is early (because we’re old and tired). Generally I send him to bed at 9:00, and he can read til 10.

This time, though, he had come straight from school, so he got to my house with no book. Of course I went on a search through my own bookshelves, but I couldn’t find anything age appropriate or that he hadn’t read before. Except …

I found these. They are books that I read to him and his siblings (now 20, 18 and 16) over and over and OVER. There were a ton more, but I hung on to these few, unable to part with them and the sweet times I had reading to each of them.

That fire engine book? That was this guy’s favorite, and he would dig to the very bottom of the book basket to find it. Then he would snuggle in beside me while I read it to him for the 497^th time – oh those snuggles! Even though he’s 9 he’s still a bit snuggly, which of course I love, and I also wonder every time if it’s the last time.

So I handed him those books in a stack, and he recognized the fire engine one right away. He read them all, and then we talked about them all, and it was so fun and funny. Then I tucked him in … and I cried as soon as I was out of the room.

Such sweet memories. Not of events or special gatherings, but instead these are memories of the  ways our lives intertwined around the ordinary things like playing Go Fish and reading the fire engine book. Again.

Do I sound sad? I guess I am, a bit, but mostly it’s not that. It was a time of happy reflection on the best season of my life, and while I did shed a few tears, they were more than worth the trip down memory lane.