Afternoon of Rain
Sunday, March 21, 2010
At church, Ichabod Coca-Cola gave Collette a copy of the Sports Illustrated Olympics edition. A definite plus to a morning that included a worship service that went half an hour longer than planned, and a wiggly, apple-cheeked baby who couldn’t manage a full hour and a half of it.
At lunch, everyone discussed the unusual ‘recommitment call’ at church that morning, highly out of the ordinary for a morning Presbyterian worship service. This transitioned into thoughts on the ’99 Billy Graham Crusade.
“Yeah, I went through the entire counselor class and then they told me I was two months too young,” said Carrie.
“I can’t believe they let me go down there,” said Collette. “I was fourteen years old. I could have said anything.”
“I just remember a Bible dancing around on the stage,” said Joe.
This somehow transitioned into thoughts on the old movie, My Side of the Mountain, which brought along a slew of quotes:
“Algae pancakes!”
“I can do it!”
“Next summer… Next summer… Next summer…”
This led into Dad talking about one of his old high school buddies.
“His family loved rare burgers,” Dad was saying, “so he would roll up ground beef into patties, add lettuce and tomato, and make them into sandwiches. Raw.”
There were predictable groans.
“What’s wrong, Linnea?” Mom asked.
“I have a stomachache,” she replied.
“Why? Because you looked in the mirror this morning?” Rose chuckled.
“No,” she replied. “I looked at you.”
A round of ‘ooooohs’ around the table.
This somehow transitioned to discussion of keeping elderly folks in the family home, as they did in Asia. And how there were no nursing homes in India. And of how Inuit Indians still went off to die alone…
“So when they think they’ve gotten too old,” said Carrie, “they just chip off part of an iceberg and float away… That’s what Grewe says she’s going to do when it’s her time to go.”
And no meal was complete without a few wisecracks from Francis.
Then while Mom and Dad napped, they watched a few clips of Whose Line is it Anyway.
And in the light rain of the afternoon, everyone watched Dad’s film about Billy Graham, Joe worked on Philmont papers, Rose on wrapping up another math quiz, Carrie on writing the history of Saturn’s rings for another paper, Puck hung on to his Lila and spun her around the house… before Francis left for youth group with some friendly punching of the shoulder from Joe, and the little Silverspoon clan took off for home.
Biggest news from the end of another week: Dad had completed all coursework for his PhD, and was now able to begin writing his dissertation.
That evening, around discussion and more BallyK, Collette discovered further ancestral connections to Babylonian princesses and one of the men who campaigned with Alexander the Great himself. Or, as Carrie had always called him: “Great Alexander the Great”.