Favorite Son

"Favorite Son" is the nickname my son acquired almost 20 years ago now while he was serving in the Army in Germany.

He gave it to himself, as a matter of fact, and I liked it,so adopted it as my pet name for him under almost any kind of circumstances. My daughters tend to remind me about calling him this nickname though -usually when he's done something that is a bit on the bone-headed side -and yes, he does do those kind of things from time to time.

But back when he was stationed in Germany, he started putting that in the return address section of the envelope containing what few letters he sent home during his time there. And early on, he had even written in a letter, inquiring as to whether or not he still held "Favorite Son" status or had I already given away the "Keys to the Castle" to his best friend, Kevin, also often referred to as "Mom's other Favorite Son!"

Well, in case you're wondering, no -the "Keys to the Castle" (wherever they are, because as the moment I have no clue as to the location of those little buggers) are still within family ownership at any rate. That, plus "Favorite Son" now has his own castle atop the hill here in the village so he has no need, no desire, to have a set to this place.

But anyway, I have to tell you now what "Favorite Son" did last night!

He and his sisters as well as the eldest Grandson (Alex) are a bit psyched up right now because the word on the street is that "Poppy" -AKA Dad to my girls and their brother, but "Poppy" to Alex, Maya and Kurtis -will be coming east for a short visit in the beginning of August.

It's been probably 4, maybe 5 years -don't recollect exactly when it was now -since the last time their Dad and my ex-husband made the trip from Las Vegas to central Pennsylvania for a visit so naturally, the kids are happy about this. And I'm fine with his coming to town too as we actually can communicate on a fairly civilized level now so it's not a big issue or problem as far as I'm concerned.

Dad does have a bit of an agenda though with this visit and "Favorite Son" along with Mandy and the two little grandkids and Alex plus, who knows who else, are all planning to attend some big shindig in Carlisle, PA -some big Car Show -and that's really the main reason that Dad is coming to town. The fact he can go to this Car Show with his offspring is just icing on his cake and his cake is cars, cars and more cars and a few trucks thrown in for good measure too!

Well, the kids -the big ones that is -have been chattering a good bit about what they are gonna do at the Car Show, and how much fun it's going to be and how they are getting a couple of hotel rooms there but Mandy and her two kids are going to share a room with Dad -or "Poppy" -take your pick which name you want to use. (Or, you can just call him Frank too since he does also answer to that name as well.

Anyway, last night, Poppy had called me to ask for "Favorite Son's" phone number as he seemed to have misplaced it, so I gave it to him. Before he rushed off to call Sonny Boy, he informed me that he had just made this really great purchase yesterday in Nevada in the form of a 1973 GMC pickup truck with only 73,000 original miles on it, great running condition and not a dent on it and he is now planning to drive out here in that truck, offer it up for sale at the car show and then, fly back to Vegas!

Okay, that's fine. After having been married to this man and having lived with him for 8 years, the purchasing of really great old vehicles is nothing new, nothing unusual even after being divorced for 32 years this summer now. I still hear these car/truck/swap/purchase stories from time to time from him and more often than not these days, I hear a lot of those kind of episodes from Favorite Son now too. Yeah -the apple doesn't fall far from the tree especially where cars, trucks and engines are concerned, that's for sure.

But after having talked to Poppy for a few minutes about a half hour or so later, there came another phone call. This time it was Favorite Son calling and he wanted -needed -to talk to me..

The first thing he asked me was if maybe I might be interested in going to Carlisle to the Car Show too with his sisters, him, the grandkids and Poppy. I told him although it does sound like it would be a lot of fun, I figured my back and legs would not be very appreciative of me if I were to go along for the ride and the tour of all those cars so, no, I'd be much happier to stay at home!

Then my son began talking to me and apologizing for how it must seem to me that he and his sisters are acting these days now, so full of excitement and happy over going to the Car Show and being there with Dad, to top it all off. He explained that it doesn't mean he -or the girls -are deserting Mom, that they don't still love me, that they -all three of them -know and remember very well who it was who put the food on the table for them, bought their clothes, put up with all their shenanigans and tended to them when they were sick or just playing hookie now and again too from school.

He wanted to make sure that because they were so happy and excited, that I wasn't feeling a tad on the left out side of things.

Made me smile and did my heart a whole lot of good, don't 'cha just know, to hear him offering his explanations about this and making sure I was seeing both sides of the picture, the same way he and his sisters were certainly doing too!

I do understand fully how much the kids are anticipating seeing their Dad once again and I hold no grudges there whatsoever. As a matter of fact, I am probably almost as excited over his coming for this visit as are our kids but for me, it is to see his reaction this time to the grandkids as he will have to work at getting next to them at first but once they feel secure around him, they are absolutely going to drive him completely NUTS!

But that aspect aside, I explained to my son -our son -that I'm just relieved and happy for them that their Dad is doing this, making a point of coming to visit them now because a few years back,it pretty much looked like the odds were in favor of his never seeing the kids again and not by force but by his own choice.

Thankfully, he turned things around and did some good things, some very right things. That's not to say that the transition between the kids and their Dad the way he is now was an easy one for them to make because for the older daughter and for Favorite Son, they were old enough when we divorced that they remembered some good things but more than likely their memories of their Dad from that time of their lives were not very good, definitely not nice.My younger daughter on the other hand remembers nothing from those days so anything their Dad does that remotely improves the relationship between him and her or him and her siblings, why that's just super-fantastic in her book!

(On a little side note here too -the older kids were both very afraid of their Dad whereas the younger child never feared him at all and never had any qualms either about showing she was just as stubborn and bull-headed as her dad and could stare him down in a heartbeat even before she was a year old!)

So anyway, that's the big event that's going to take place around August 2nd and 3rd and that's the reason why all three of my grown children are walking just a tad like they are on Cloud Nine these days now too!

And you know what? I'm really, honest-to-goodness very happy to see them acting this way, feeling the way they do and I can hear it, sense it, in their Dad's voice on the phone too just how much he's looking forward to this visit now too!

I'm also really proud of my son though for extending the invitation to me to join them with their plans for lots and lots of fun and frivolity though. It's something he didn't have to do, didn't have to explain to me how and why he and his sisters feel the way they do -kind of like handling a double-edged sword is how he put it to me in that on one hand, this is gonna be so cool to spend time with Dad and on the other, well gee, Mom's being totally left out and sure to feel like we've all gone off and abandoned her.

And it's so like Favorite Son to see things that way and to want to make sure that no one feels like they've been left out in a hard, cold rain!

And I'm looking forward to seeing the sunshine flowing into their lives over the next two month span!