Wednesday, October 17, 2007

"My First Homecoming"

Helios and Hesperos, along with Daddy, went "home" to Kumquatville with Mommy recently for college homecoming celebrations. Kumquatville is typical small town America, with festivities that last a week long, beginning with speeches and choral performances, progressing through yell night, and proceeding to a homecoming formal dance, homecoming parade, homecoming tailgates, and homecoming football game, concluded by homecoming barhopping which is capped off by homecoming hangover on Sunday.




The boys, being unable to procure the requisite identification to demonstrate their legal ability to imbibe the local firewater, instead relegated themselves to the more wholesome homecoming activities, including watching the parade and going to their first ever football game. Aunt Elspeth and Cousin Andrew were also in attendance, gathering beaded necklaces in school colors and catching freely thrown candy. (Homecoming is like pre-Halloween in Kumquatville. And where else could a person see a middle-aged cowboy dressed in school colors twirling the hula hoop around his waist on a public street?)


Afterward, the boys marched off with us to the football game. Helios really took to football in a surprising way, turning the mini football he received during the parade into a 3-year-molar teething toy.
Hesperos was a bit bewildered by all the people and, perhaps typical of "today's children" chose not to watch what was happening live just a few yards away, but instead chose to watch the same game on the super-wide TV screens 40 feet above (while eating lunch, of course).






Following the game, we all went to Grandma Joan's and Grandpa Wil's home to hang out for a little bit and get warm. While there Cousin Andrew tried on his Halloween costume for us. Unfortunately, the sight of Cousin Andrew dressed up as a super-sized mouse was simply too much for Hesperos to handle as he became simply petrified. In violent reaction, he crawled away as quickly as possible into the closest and largest hole he could find ... Grandma Joan's dishwasher.


That night, we went back to the hotel exhausted and cold from the day's activities. After baths, Hesperos, apparently very concerned about the availability of TP for the BH for the long ride home, piled large quantities of unraveled toilet paper into the wagon we had brought along with us. (The two-seater Red Flyer wagon, in case you didn't know, is the double-stroller of the here-and-now for today's yuppy parents with a small brood. While not as compact, it's infinitely more sturdy, functional, and fun so it tends to go with us now on many of our daily jaunts and shorter road trips.)

After a slightly incomplete night's sleep (periodically interrupted by cheers and hoots from the locals proud of the winning home team), we pulled ourselves together the next morning so we could make the long trek home (along with a studious Aunt Elspeth who drove along with us).

Hesperos, being ever sensitive to Mommy's and Daddy's needs for rest from driving, offered to help out a bit with the work of getting us home. Unfortunately, because he's just a little vertically challenged and can't reach the gas pedals, we didn't get too far.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hesperos could certainly drive if someone taped blocks of wood to his feet!