I was supposed to be posting a blog over on Tote Bags ‘n’ Blogs today.  But I forgot. 

Then Lee, the owner, reminded me. And I got written and then couldn’t post it because apparently Blogger is down.

So I told her I would post it here. Life is weird these days. I’ve been Missing in Action here for the last month because I’ve been working madly on Yiannis’s book. And teaching a class and doing all sorts of other stuff that escapes me – just like the blog has.  Anyway, here’s the Tote Bags blog. 

And if I ever get on Blogger today, you can read it there, too.

I’m late today. My apologies. I’ve been preparing for the last class of the semester of a course that I teach in family history research, and I just got back — feeling pleased because all my students are excited and eager and looking forward to doing lots of work on the internet and on research trips this summer.  And now I feel like I’ve dropped the ball.

That’s because I am getting less and less good at multi-tasking apparently.  Or maybe it’s because the weather is all of a sudden 90 degrees and I’m left wondering, What happened to spring? 

Anyway, sometimes life gets away from me (and so do blogs apparently) and this was one of those times.

So since I’ve come unprepared (because I’m also making 200 brownies for the graduation party of my oldest grandson whose party is this weekend), I need to ask your advice.

What do you get a charming, talented, clever, smart, athletic high school senior for his graduation?

Bear in mind that whatever we get him, we’re setting a precedent. There are seven more grandkids following in his footsteps — so far. 

What we do for one, we need to comparably do for all the others in some fashion or other. So, yachts are out. So are trips to Hawaii and other mega-costly things.

I know cash is always an option — and there will probably be a bit of that.

But cash comes and cash goes. And then you don’t have anything to think back on and remember that Grandma and Grandpa gave that to you when you graduated from high school.

I know this for a fact because I remember two things that people gave me when I graduated from high school.  An aunt and uncle gave me some luggage because I was going away to college (he’s not going that far).  And my great-aunt Martha have me a lovely wool blanket I still have.

Every time I put it on the bed in the winter, I think of Aunt Martha.  Mostly I think of her because my cousin got married two weeks after my graduation and she didn’t give him and his new wife a wedding present at all. 

When my grandmother asked (grandma was blunt) why, Aunt Martha said, speaking from experience, “Well, you only graduate from high school once. You can get married plenty of times!”

So . . . bearing that in mind, I’d like to get him something he’ll remember fondly, even if he doesn’t have the crazy family story to go with it that I do.

 
Help, please!!

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 12th, 2011 at 4:51 pm and is filed under Family, Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.