Bryce and Sara have been wanting Audrey's folks to meet their grandson Robin for a while now, but Covid made that impossible as it did so many things. Robin turns three this month (astonishingly), and with school out Audrey arranged to meet them down in High River as a local guide and so they could stay at her sister Vera's place.
Well, the next thing you know, other members of Audrey's family are wanting to drop by to meet the new kin and hey, with so many of us there why don't we have an early 90th birthday celebration for Opa? Once it turned into a de facto family reunion, it kind of took on a life of its own and gathered steam from that point on.
We brought the tent trailer down Friday night and parked next to Hank and Betty's fifth wheel on Vera's enormous driveway. After a pancake breakfast in the mess hall we cobbled together in her equally massive garage the next morning, we hauled a propane grill, cooler and a bunch of chairs and food to George Lane Memorial Park.
I should say that this afternoon was not without its share of apprehension, for a couple of reasons. First of all, I will be the first to admit to the atrophication of my own social skills over the past two-and-a-half years. As mentioned in last week's post, this pandemic has been tough on all of us, and we are all out of practice when it comes to interacting with other groups of humans.
Secondly, there is always a risk when the city mice and country mice get together, and with the news these days full of potentially and earnestly divisive topics on both sides of the border on a daily basis, well, it behooves one to proceed with caution, if not trepidation. Then add the possibility that some of these, let's call them more parochial viewpoints, have actually intensified during Covid..
Entering such an environment with my oldest daughter (who was nicknamed "Human Rights Person" by one of her profs), her non-white boyfriend, my queer nephew and the rest of us "Every Child Matters" t-shirt-wearers from 'Redmonton' could potentially be like looking for a gas leak in a dark basement with a lit match, but hey, Lord hates a coward, right?
And sure enough, when another relative showed up wearing a cap that read "Trudeau -Canda's Biggest Virus," I had to laugh and refused to take the bait. I know for a natural fact this person has at least a dozen other caps they could have worn for the occasion and besides, I'm still mad at his target too - what the hell happened to electoral reform, Justin?
Anyhow, it all went pretty well in the end; the weather was hot but the site was shady and a nice breeze kept things cool. We all remembered how to connect again, somehow, and enjoyed smokies and beer and catching up and even a few games of ladderball together. There were over thirty of us there at one point, and we got to reconnect with a lot of people, some of whom we just love to pieces.
Audrey finally got to introduce Bryce, Sara and Robin to the last members of her family who hadn't met them yet. We got to hug my oldest niece just days before she is scheduled to give birth and give Betty and Hank their first grandchild. We sang happy birthday to a patriarch a month ahead of him reaching 90% of a century (wow!). And best of all, Oma and Opa got to see multiple generations of their family tree interacting for the first time since 2019.
My favourite tableaux of all came the next day, however, after we'd breakfasted and packed up the trailer and just before the last of us sat down for a pre-departure game of Codenames (because Vera was hosting everyone and hardly ever gets to play games with large groups).
At some point my nephew Mark produced a set of high-end nail polishes which, thanks to two daughters and Instagram ads, I actually recognized (Holo Taco (for "holographic topcoat") in case you were wondering).
He got Glory to paint his nails with these amazing shades, and afterwards one of his uncles took an interest. Now, this particular brother is generally an easy-going and laid-back individual but does work full-time in agriculture (like most of Audrey's family) and while by no means a redneck, would probably not object to being described along the lines of straight-laced, and I wondered about just how open-minded he might be about fellows wearing nail polish.
It turns out I needn't have worried; when asked if he wanted his nail's done, Audrey's brother snorted, but instead of saying "no way!" or "what kind of guy do you take me for?", he simply replied, "There's no point - I would chip them pretty colours off before lunch time my first day back at work!"
Ah, the Dutch - ever so practical. ; )
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