Reliving my childhood summers

Our annual visit to West Virginia resembled my childhood summers in many ways:

• Riding bikes in the early morning or late evening to the John Marshall High School tennis courts (freshly resurfaced with new nets and fence this year) to play a few sets.
• Swimming or just cooling off from the hot mid-day sun in Glen Dale's municipal swimming pool.
• Biking out Little Grave Creek Road or into town. (The bike trail along the Ohio River between Glen Dale and Moundsville didn't exist back then.)
• Checking out a big stack of books from the Moundsville Public Library. (They didn't have movies on DVD back then.)
• Gathering with the cousins to play cards at my Mom's house. (We played sports and games outdoors instead of Canasta at the dining room table.)
• Reconnecting with my brother Mike and my best friend from high school Letitia.

With my mother's pronouncement that she will be ready to sell the house in two years and move to Duluth to be near me, my opportunities to "go home again" are nearing an end. Mom may change her mind several times between now and then. At 86, we all know maintaining the house and acre of land with it has become "too much" for her.

 I'll be happy to have her nearby rather than 1,000 miles away. But I will miss recreating my childhood summers for my son. We have been blessed to be able to do that for 11 years and --  hopefully -- a couple more.

Schooling for life

During our visit to West Virginia, my brother Mike gave my 11-year-old son some tips on shooting pool. He also introduced him to two-handed euchre and "Shut the Box," a traditional English pub game of dice and numbers.

I must mention that after 10 rounds of Shut the Box, Sam wanted to modify the rules to include the use of subtraction in eliminating the numbers. By the following day, he was advocating the use of algebraic formulas. None of which his Uncle Mike would allow.

Obviously, my son doesn't yet understand the importance of keeping your drinking games simple.