Day 28: Generations

Today was a walk back into my family's history...worshipping at 2nd Presbyterian in Lexington, where my parents were married in 1966 (Kendall: "This is where my granny was a princess?"), and where my mom's family attended for decades. Taking the kids to my uncle's home, in which he, my aunt and my mom grew up. Visiting the grave sites of my maternal grandparents in the historic Lexington cemetary (and learning about some of the many noteworthy people buried there).

The kids' interest was most keen for the seemingly insignificant places in which our hilarious family stories are set, most of them in the family home: the kitchen table on which my grandfather broke his finger while pointedly scolding his kids (my mom fetched a band-aid for him); the oven in which he would broil his steaks, sitting in front of the open door and asking for the salt or a knife in the same way he ordered his instruments in the operating room (he was a surgeon); the tunnel-effect of the trees on Shady Lane, the beautiful street upon which the house sits, would incite my parents' dog Heidi to near-hysterics on our summer vacations because she realized my granny--whom she adored--was just around the corner; the long hallway down which my high-energy granny would speed-march to her room to take a nap, and on which my cousins, brother and I would ride a wheeled Donald Duck toy, shrieking with laughter as we made him "quack."

My childhood memories in each of these places were very vivid today, and I found myself wishing, for the umpteenth time, that my kids could have known my grandparents. Kelsey's middle name is Covington, the maiden name of my granny, who died when Kelsey was three months but who knew of her arrival--her first great-grandchild. (By the way, we're equal-opportunity in our naming; Kendall's middle name is Lovie, Stan's grandmother's maiden name!) This was our "family" day in Lexington; the rest of our time here will be spent seeing horses, Daniel Boone sites and frontier forts!

"Unc"--my Uncle Jim

Unc's home in Lexington. The acres of trees and gardens were unimaginably beautiful during my granny's many good years. Sadly, I didn't inherit her green thumb. :-(

Cooling off in the campground pool