By Jim Hunt
Many years ago, when I was 10 or 11, my parents arranged for my older sister and me to go to Wellsburg, West Virginia to spend a week with my dad’s older sister, Aunt Mattie and Uncle Lee. It was our “vacation” and we looked forward to it every year. They lived along the Ohio River in a little house, hardly big enough for them, but they made room for us. We would go down to the river and take our fishing poles, but most of the time, Uncle Lee would tell us stories about his youth. Aunt Mattie would spend the day cooking and cleaning, and, in the evening, we would drive in Uncle Lee’s Ford Falcon to the local Dairy Queen for an ice cream cone. It was some of the best memories in my youth.
As we got older, the summer trips to Wellsburg ended and we would go to band camps or be working at the park throughout the summer. I realized that visiting relatives was a fleeting thing, but well remembered. As my grandchildren came along, I wanted them to have those special memories and we opened our home to Avery and Emery, the two grandchildren from South Carolina. Avery was the first to spend time with us in the summer and I can still remember her excitement when her parents dropped her off the first time. She jumped out of the car with her little “Hello Kitty” suitcase and a backpack filled with stuffed animals. She gave her mom and dad a quick hug and was ready for her week in West Virginia. We took a daytrip to the West Virginia Game Farm, just outside of Buckhannon, and Avery had a little notebook that she was writing down the highlights of her visit.
We thought when Avery’s sister, Emery, came along that she would just accompany Avery for the week, but she had other ideas. She wanted to come by herself and that became our custom, one week for each of them in the Summer. Spending two weeks in the summer doesn’t seem like much, but we soon learned that it was a major production keeping two small kids busy and still getting the grass cut and the chores done was not for the faint hearted. The visits were also a way to keep the kids in touch with their West Virginia cousins and other family members.
This year, Avery came to West Virginia first and Emery is coming over the 4th of July and staying a week. Avery is also celebrating her 12th birthday on her visit, and we are having a party with many of her West Virginia relatives. We realize that the visits may slow down, and as cheerleading and basketball camps occupy their time, the available weeks will get harder to schedule. But we intend to enjoy this time while we have it and hope that these West Virginia visits become a tradition that they pass down to their children.
If you are just beginning the “grandparent” thing, I would encourage you to plan these trips and feel blessed when your children are comfortable enough to entrust their kids to you. As we get older, we sometimes feel disconnected from these young kids, glued to their iPads and iPhones, but I can assure you, you will never regret the conversations and experiences from these young minds. These kids know so much more than I ever did at their age and are dealing with issues that were never discussed as I grew up. I wonder what Aunt Maggie and Uncle Lee thought about their young visitors, but I hope they enjoyed it as much as my wife and me!
