13 Again

Just thinking about Carter's busy summer prompted me to dig out my diary from the summer of '81 when I turned 13. (Yes, decades ago!) I see I was just as busy as he was. Imagine that!!

That summer, my brother Ron was home from college, my sister Rachel was down in the Twin Cities for a live-in babysitting job, and my twin sister and I took turns babysitting our niece Caryn, who I'm sure had bypassed her terrible 2's and was a treat all summer. (No sarcasm. I adored her! And still do!)

The big news that summer -- besides my "new red silk swimsuit with a blue diagonal stripe" -- was that two of my sisters were getting married. RoAnn's wedding was in June and Romey's was in July. Lots of diary entries about showers and gifts and buying dresses. What an exciting time.

It didn't seem I ever got bored. On days when I wrote of doing "nothing" I usually mentioned helping mom with laundry or baking or cleaning. One day I wrote about Mom being gone and my twin sister and I were supposed to bake bread. Instead we went swimming -- for much too long -- and that bread just kept rising and rising in the warm house. Oops. Mother was not happy.

I guess I can't expect my 13-year-old to be perfectly responsible then, either!

Today I picked him up from Leadership and brought him back to work to see some of his "old friends." He is getting close to be as tall as quite a few of us now!

The main reason Carter had wanted to stop in was to deliver a t-shirt he made for my co-worker Angelo -- who drinks way too many cans of Pepsi every day but is setting aside his aluminum to help Carter's scrap metal efforts. So Carter decorated a t-shirt for him with the Pepsi logo and "Cans for Carter" on it. Very cute. Angelo got a kick out of that. I told him didn't have to worry about wearing it -- but I suspect he will the next time he knows Carter will be around!

Now Jim and Carter are at the ball park for practice before the big tournament weekend. I was reminded that I spent a lot of time at the ball park when I was 13, too. Not playing. My dad umped a lot of games at a place called Manitou. I just went along to drink the orange pop and buy those 5-cent Lolli's.

That was the life. Now I'm a bit jealous of Carter!