In August 2017, when Connor was about to start first grade, he and I spent a few days in Dayton to visit my late grandparents and my BFF, Amy.
This past week, he and Aaron and I all spent a few days in Dayton to visit Amy. Of course, I took the opportunity to capture a then-and-now photo at JD’s Custard.
The highlight of last month’s spring break staycation was taking a daytrip to Ann Arbor! Thrifting, gaming, shopping, and eating. And walking.
Our first stop was Salvation Army, on our way into town. Connor found a telescope for cheap — all it needs is a bolt and locking washer for one of the tripod legs.
Our next stop was Pinball Pete’s. Connor had never been to an honest-to-goodness arcade before (Chuck E. Cheese doesn’t count). All the machines still take actual money, not tokens or cards, which was refreshing.
Luckily, there’s no visual documentation of me playing DDR Extreme — although it was OMG SO FUN and took me back to my college days, I really don’t need to see what I looked like jumping around to my favorite DDR song. I assure you, I looked nothing like this guy.
After an hour or so at Pinball Pete’s, we walked across the Diag to the other side of campus, for virtually everything else we wanted to do.
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Any other day, we would have perused the second-hand shops, the bookstores, and Goodwill — but we were coming to the close of a long day of driving and funeral and entombment (and finally lunch), and a stroll around the Oregon District was not in the cards.
Perhaps another time.
Even though I played with the Litchfield Town Band briefly during the mid-90’s, I was still surprised to witness the pride of this little town in their concert band. All summer, on Friday evenings, the town band assembles in the gazebo to play marches and polkas and other traditional crowd favorites.
When my son and I went to visit my Mom at the end of July, a good number of her friends were looking forward to pulling out some chairs and listening to the music. Having been a music major in a former life, I could tell that it wasn’t exactly professional-sounding, but it wasn’t totally cringey, either. It was enjoyable in that live-music-outside sort of way.
Except to one nine-year-old boy who’d already had a long day. To him, it was “boring,” and he just wanted to go back to Grammy’s house and relax.
Connor and I took a long weekend at the end of July to go visit my mom in Medina County, Ohio. Of course, I had to get a photo of my son in front of the iconic gazebo in Medina Square.
His Dad and I had collaborated to make him a mixtape (yes, an actual cassette tape that he played in an actual Sony Walkman) that included his favorite techno/electronic and video game music, and he listened to it nonstop. Hence the headphones.
I just got the film developed (yes, actual 35mm film) and was struck by how much my son looks like my mother.
