What I Really Wanted to Write About Yesterday

Drinking iced tea under the shade tree.

Family gatherings of old, of yesteryear.

Amber was still a kid and not a grandmother, Jane wasn't a nurse yet, Chuck didn't race cars yet, and Christian wasn't born yet. But still the family congregated at Mom's on Saturdays. Sometimes 3 or 4, sometimes 24. Sometimes to work on a project for Mom or Dad; a new fence, tear down a shed, burn some trash, garden chores. Sometimes it was just any old Saturday, sometimes it was the 4th of July, but it was always iced tea under the shade tree. The catalpa tree. The big catalpa tree with its funny seeds, the seeds that every kid played with. Seeds that could be a baby buggy or a weapon.

Sometimes there were guests arriving; Tim and Dorie, The Strouds, the cop, I forget his name -- Priest I think, sometimes total strangers who just happened to be going down the road there on 50th Street. Amber had to wear her corrective shoes, Julia would bring down excitement; a red sports car, a case of soda, a camera. This was before she became such a nervous Nellie. Remember that time?

As active as it was with people coming and going, playing, laughing, James being James, eating, and drinking ice tea. As active as it was -- on reflection it seems a quiet time. All those troubles of those days are gone. Gone like melted spring snow. And there were troubles, it was not a trouble free time but I can't remember a one.

What I do remember is the gallons of iced tea, getting blocks of ice out of the freezer and chipping gallons of ice for the iced tea, and then drinking the iced tea slowly under the shade tree.

Times keep changing. Careers, jobs, sometimes Janice was in town, sometimes not. Jean went to California and came back, grand kids grew up and started getting married, Maxine died, but there was always the quiet calm under the tree.

Now it is more water than iced tea, there is no congregating point. Settling in at Jerry and Jane's is nice, Jean's table is nice, Janice's nook is nice, My couch is sorta nice, but it ain't the same as drinking ice tea under Mom's shade tree.

People are the same, life is the same, busy times, troubled times, quiet times. Family is the same, still grief and joy, still loving and aging, still children and still sunshine and trees. All the homing devices are aimed at Greenleaf now where we drink our iced tea under the shade tree -- or water, or bourbon, or beer, or Yoohoos. Maybe it is the same.

Kids rolling down the grassy hillside, playing in the sand, getting hurt, crying, needing a hug or kiss. Health issues, trip planning, eating, laughing, sharing with or without troubles. Amber is a grandmother, Jane is a retired nurse, Christian is middle-aging.

Life continues under the shade tree.