It doesn’t happen very often but everyone is at home this weekend….all 3 children, all 3 spouses, almost all the grandchildren, plus 3 "grand-doggers". We go from a placid quiet household to one filled with action and noisiness….all of it good. It is a good thing when adult children want to come home; it is even better when the grandchildren want to come to see Grandma and Grandpa. It is not so nice to have an eager beagle trying to steal food off the kitchen counters; I have never seen a dog who can elongate herself like our Bailey-Bopper. Our cat is hiding in the "catacombs" scared out of her wits by 3 dogs who have great interest in seeing her and chasing her. She has secret hiding places from which she will not emerge until she darn well pleases. Some wag said that dogs are little men and cats are little women and their temperaments make it seem that the saying is true. I really hope the rain clears away by tomorrow so it doesn’t interfere with the game called "autos" which is an invention by 3 boys who played it very seriously in their youthful days. It involves hitting tennis balls with a baseball bat but that is about all I know about it. It was played in the "stadium" west of our house and it was a constant game in the 1970′s and early 1980′s. Now they have to have an "autos" reunion every now and then in the summertime and tomorrow is the day. Rain, rain, go away…come again another day.
Another thing about a Homecoming is that adult children can revert to type and become youngsters again, pleased to have a mother wait on them as she did when they were little guys. It only takes a moment of transition; they just have to walk thru the door to the old home place and it happens, just like that. One of them once mused that he wondered if all the green beans he stuck under the table were still there….sure enough….he found petrified green beans stuck under the table so many years ago. They even survived a move to a new house. And I always thought he had eaten them. There are lots of things a parent should never hear about, like the days they stuck firecrackers in dead frogs and dead fish and blew them to kingdom come. I never had a brother so it is hard to understand the male psyche and my boys have told me a few things that I am really glad I didn’t know about at the time they happened. The beagle is still patrolling the kitchen…I am antsy just hearing the click of the claws. Two more dogs will arrive tonight or tomorrow and then the fun begans….all three of them compete for attention and constantly "dog" each other and engage in sniffing rituals I would rather not talk about. It is going to be another great Homecoming weekend.
