We stopped at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to watch the changing of the guard. I stood off by myself, so I wouldn't have to see if anyone didn't like it, or found it boring. I liked the reverence of the soldiers towards the place. I stood a little straighter as I watched the posture of the soldiers.
We got out again when we came to John F. Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy's gravesites. Paul and I remembered those two days of their deaths as we had many times before.
The girls asked us a few questions about it but by the time we got back on the tram, I felt really exhausted.
“What should we do now?” Paul asked.
“Let's go back to the hotel,” I said.
“It's not even five.”
“I know but I'm really tired.”
When we stepped into the hotel room, the phone started ringing. We couldn't imagine who would be calling us. I answered the phone and then handed the receiver to Clare. It was a boy who had been down at the pool every night. He wanted eleven-year-old Clare to meet him there.
“Absolutely not,” Paul said.
“Why not?” Clare asked. She held the phone away from her ear.
“Because you are 11 years old and eleven-year-olds don't date. Would you hang up the phone please?”
“I have to go,” Clare said. She hung up the phone, sat down on the couch, and waited.
“Where are his parents?” Paul said while pacing in front of the TV.
Anne moved her neck back and forth trying to see around Paul. “Dad, I can't see the TV.”
Paul spun around. “Shut it off, then. On second thought, I'll shut it off.” He strode over and turned the TV off.
Anne had never considered that the TV could be off when we were in the hotel room. She didn't quite know what to do with herself, so she gaped at the dark, silent screen.
I was getting a pretty clear idea of what the dating years were going to be like. Boys on the scene, in combination with our teenagers checking out my hairstyles and my total lack of style in clothing, were going to make for some less than harmonious times. As I fenced comments about my person, Paul would be grilling the girls about any boys who came their way.
This sneak preview made me think warily of the future. If there was a way of fastforwarding the next ten plus years, I would surely be interested. Or even going back in time when a story at bedtime and a hug and kiss took care of so much. We were once again in unmarked territory.
“Dad, the parents are going to be there,” Clare said.
“Oh,” Paul said. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, I'm sure.”
“I still don't want you going down there by yourself. Anne or I will go with you.”
“Okay.”
“And don't make this a habit. Meeting some boy. Understand?”
“Dad, we're leaving tomorrow. I'll never see him again.”
“Good.” Paul looked delighted at the prospect.
The other girls and Paul went downstairs with Clare to swim. I had a lot of laundry to do before I could pack for the next day. I enjoyed the quiet while washing and folding clothes. After I finished putting the clothes in piles, I went to the pool area to watch my husband and girls.
The next morning we took a cab to Dulles airport to pick up our rental car. Paul handed each girl a roll of nickels, and we drove east towards Maryland. Then we would take a highway going south all the way to Virginia Beach.
As with South Dakota, Yellowstone, and Lake Superior, the whole family wished we had more time in Washington. What a great city! We hadn't seen the White House, the FBI building, the U.S. Mint, and so much more.
Maybe we'll be lucky enough to go back someday.
Fourteen
Beachballs and Boys
Growing pains can be confusing for both adults and children
With nickels working their magic on our children, I could enjoy the breathtaking scenery of Chesapeake Bay. Anne and the others looked out the windows, thinking their own private thoughts, but at least they weren't battling each other. No remote control was being clicked either. The respite was more than welcome.
Before pulling up to Virginia Beach, we wanted to stop at Jamestown, one of the first settlements of the immigrant Europeans. It interested Clare and Erin but not Anne. She decided to sit on the bench with Colleen outside the little fort.
A replica of the tiny ship lay moored in the water. We walked through the vessel, wondering how people survived the voyage itself. I imagined storms tossing the ship side to side and the sounds of pelting rain, squealing wind, and creaking boards. I imagined fear in the darkness of night.
As we walked out of the ship, we glanced over at Anne and Colleen, who sat on the bench staring off into space. Anne's mouth moved when she saw us, probably asking when we were going to leave. We just waved pleasantly in their direction while walking towards the settlement. I didn't look back.
The settlement was a replica of the original but it gave an idea of what life was like in the 1600s. This was the place of John Smith and Pocohantas. I had always loved reading those stories.
“How long ago was it here?” Clare asked.
“Let's see. It looks like it began in 1607 with 105 people from England. Oh, my gosh, only 38 survived the first year,” I said.
“Then, more people came so by 1609 there were 500 people,” Paul said.
“That's a lot in the little fort,” Erin said.
“The frigid winter of 1609-1610 was called the “Starving Time,” Paul read to Erin and Clare. “There were only 60 people left in the spring. Jamestown was abandoned.”
“I wouldn't have liked to live here,” Clare said.
“Me either. I don't think we would have survived,” I said.
“That wasn't the end of it,” Paul said. “Leaders in England ordered the settlers back.”
“Then, what happened?” Erin asked.
“Well, then, they started to grow tobacco,” Paul explained. “The settlement grew to 4,500 people in 1623.”
As it often does, the human spirit amazed me. To think that these people left their homelands, and most saw neither their country nor their families again. How lonely and sad, yet they continued on to make Jamestown the first permanent settlement.
We walked out of the fort with Clare and Erin still asking questions. We picked up our oldest and youngest at the bench and got back into the car. Our next stop was Virginia Beach.
“It's the ocean, Colleen,” Anne said. “Look.”
“It's big.”
“No, Colleen, it's huge,” Clare said. “It's bigger even than Lake Superior.”
“Dad, can we get into our swimming suits right away?” Erin asked.
“Sure. But we need to bring in the luggage first.”
Everyone grabbed their luggage and dragged them into the room. The suite had two bedrooms and a television room with a pullout couch. With a thud of her suitcase landing, Anne seized the couch. “This bed's mine,” she said. She clutched the remote control and rifled through the channels.
We explored the other rooms. Erin and Colleen were in one room while Paul, Clare, and I were in the other. The girls punched their pillows, then plopped onto their beds testing the mattresses for firmness. Clare argued about sleeping in the same room with Paul and me but we wouldn't budge. She would have her own bed and, hopefully, get some sleep. Paul and I had decided that we had to separate Anne and Clare whenever possible at bedtime. That way, only Anne would come home to tell everyone at school and on our block about the exciting movies she had watched. When Anne discovered she'd be sleeping alone, she was happy as a clam, remote control in hand.
I retrieved swimming suits from the suitcases. We changed and the six of us hurried down to the ocean.
“C'mon, Colleen. Let's go,” Erin said. “I can't wait.”
“I'm coming.” Colleen ran as fast as she could.
The four girls gingerly placed their feet in the water and slowly walked up to their knees. As the waves came in their rhythm, the girls jumpe
d over them. The water in the swimming area stayed shallow for a long way so it was perfect for little kids. The three older girls surrounded Colleen to make sure she didn't go too deep.
Anne's eyes darted around checking out the people on the beach. Her eyes settled on a group not too far from us. I followed her eyes, found who she was interested in, and elbowed Paul. His eyes followed mine and the color left his face. A group of boys stood surveying the beach. They looked at Anne, poked each other, and looked again. Two of them ambled over to the sand directly in front of the girls. An interplay proceeded between these two and our oldest. It consisted of eyes locking, then looking down coyly, then locking again.
Soon the boys were walking into the water and Anne had a smirk on her face. She didn't move any closer to them; she knew she didn't have to.
In no time, the two boys and Anne were talking. Anne became more and more animated as the three of them talked. I didn't have to worry about eavesdropping; Erin did that just fine. We had used her listening ability more than once in the past year to find out what Anne and Clare were up to. Whatever the girls were doing, if Erin knew about it, she would tell. Kind of like Cousin Sid in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. I wasn't proud of listening to Erin tattle, but in this case, we had to use the resources at hand. The absence of gray areas in Erin's world made her the perfect spy if we needed one. That was Erin, almost 10 and living in her own black and white world of right and wrong.
“Why did those two come over here?” Paul said.
“I think you know why.”
“Yes, I do and that's what I'm afraid of.” Paul seemed to have an inordinate amount of fear when it came to boys. As much as he thought I overreacted to Anne's comments about my physical appearance, he overreacted far more to even the prospect of boys. It made me wonder about him as a teenager.
As far as I was concerned, Anne and the two boys were talking to each other innocently enough. She was far too young for dating and we were leaving in two days. What could happen in two days? As I pondered that question, I became uneasy. Then I remembered our backup, Erin. My nerves relaxed.
After fifteen minutes, the boys left. We stayed at the beach for another hour until dinnertime. Anne was nowhere near as animated at the table with family as she had been earlier. We tried to find out about her visitors on the beach but she wasn't talking.
When we returned to the hotel room, Anne seemed disinterested in the TV. She stayed in the bathroom for a long time. When she emerged, with eye shadow and fluttery lashes, she walked over to the door.
“Where are you going?” Paul asked.
“Down to the beach.” Anne's foot kept the door to our hotel room ajar. Her right hand was on the doorknob and her left hand was on her hip.
“To swim? We don't feel like swimming right now.”
“That's okay. I'm meeting some people to play volleyball.”
“Who are you meeting?”
“Some people I met.”
“Are you meeting those two boys?”
“Them and others. They're not the only ones playing. It's a big group.”
“I don't like it at all.”
Anne stood there waiting and finally said, “Are you saying I can't even play volleyball with kids my own age?”
“No. that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that you could play with some girls.”
“There'll be girls there too.”
“Maybe your sisters could play.”
Anne had had it. “So, when I'm on vacation, I can't do anything with people my own age. I'm just supposed to hang out with my younger sisters all the time and my parents. Why did you even bring us to the beach if I can't have any fun?” she yelled.
“Close the door, please,” Paul said tersely. “The whole hotel can hear you.”
Anne closed the door but she wasn't done. “I have to spend two weeks not even talking to my friends. Then I can't even look at people my own age. I want to go home.”
“We can't go home now.”
“I'm never coming on a family vacation again.”
By this time I was thinking that I wouldn't be going on another family vacation, either. But I also thought that Anne did have a point. She should be able to spend time with people her own age. I tried to get Paul's attention as he paced from room to room. I finally followed him.
“Paul, wait, I want to talk to you.”
“Okay.”
“Anne does have a point.” I was sure everyone was listening to us but there was no place to go. I suppose we could have gone into the bathroom and closed the door but, somehow, that seemed too strange. I settled for our bedroom area. There was no door so we would have to have our discussion with four sets of ears tuned to every word.
“What are you saying?”
“I'm saying there's nothing wrong with a group of kids playing volleyball. It seems innocent enough.”
“Nothing's innocent with teenage boys.”
This wasn't the time to ask questions about the past. I had to focus on the present. “We'll just tell her what time to be back,” I said.
Paul wasn't convinced yet so I left the room. He would think about it and come out. The girls sat on Anne's couch bed watching TV. I sat down heavily in a chair. Suddenly I felt as if I could go to bed for the night even though it was only seven-thirty.
Paul came out and walked over to Anne. “I want you back here by nine-thirty at the latest.”
“Okay, I will be.” Anne leapt up and was out the door. She didn't want to take any chance that Paul would change his mind.
He went down to the beach to check on Anne twice in the two hours she was gone. She was back by nine-thirty on the button.
The next day Paul rented a jet-ski. Everyone took their turns riding behind him. When Paul and Erin went about two hundred yards away from the beach, dolphins swam alongside them. In the afternoon the waves were choppier and much higher. We soon discovered the reason why. A hurricane was brewing off the coast of Florida. Hurricane Andrew.
We stayed at Virginia Beach all day, relaxing. That night, Anne went down to the beach again to play volleyball. Both Paul and I walked by the area where the kids played volleyball at different times. I had Erin in tow with me alert for any stray words. Luckily, she didn't hear anything that made me think that I had to rush in and save my firstborn.
Anne wanted to stay in Virginia Beach for the rest of the trip. She was quiet the next morning as we drove towards Williamsburg.
Fifteen
Last But Not Least-Niagara Falls
God's creations are the best of all
We drove around southern Virginia, stopping at Norfolk Naval yard and the Yorktown battlefield. Anne stayed in the car with Colleen as we walked around the battlefield. In this last major battle of the Revolutionary War, General Cornwallis of England was defeated. The scope and size of the battlefield surprised Paul and me. As we looked out on the quiet fields, it was hard to believe that men had fought and died there.
We had talked about going to the water park in Williamsburg one of the two nights we would be there. I had so much laundry to do that I wanted to get it done right away. We ate supper and I took off with a garbage bag full of dirty clothes. I thought if I got it done quickly enough, we could still go. It was after eight o'clock when I got back, too late to start out for the water park.
The next day we went to the area of the city that was known as Colonial Williamsburg. Walking through the houses gave us a sense of the colony of Virginia before the revolution. There was a tavern where the fiery speeches of revolution were spoken.
“Give me liberty or give me death,” a man shouted with fist raised above his head.
“Mom, is that supposed to be Patrick Henry?” Clare asked.
“Yes.”
“Is this really where they talked about Revolution?” Anne asked. “I don't believe that it was this exact spot.”
“That's what it says.”
People in the houses and exhibits dressed in period costumes and they stay
ed in character when asked questions. Other historical figures could be heard giving speeches on the street corners. Blacksmiths, haberdashers, and pharmacists plied their trades.
We stood in line at the Governor's Mansion for a tour. We saw the living quarters of the governor and his family as well as where the cook and laundress toiled all day every day. The cook actually had some fish for us to try and some cookies. We walked around the sculptured gardens in the back of the house.
“Isn't this neat?” I asked.
“Mm, hmm,” Erin said.
“I like the garden,” Colleen said, while skipping along.
We tried to stay together but it wasn't always easy with the crowds of people. Paul and I turned around constantly to make sure that the four girls were with us. Anne or Clare hung on to Colleen's hand wherever we went.
“You don't have to worry about losing Mom,” Clare said to Erin. “You just look for the big hair.” They both nodded.
I had turned halfway around when I heard my name. I couldn't believe my ears. The idea of my big hair had filtered down to my two middle children. I licked my fingers and ran them from scalp to the ends of my hair, trying to flatten it. “Wait a minute,” I said. “Do you really think that my hair is big?”
Clare and Erin looked at each other, at my hair, and then back at each other.
“Yeah, Mom, it's big,” Clare said.
“Yeah, really big,” Erin said.
I felt self-conscious, picturing my hair towering above a crowd as we moved along. I nudged Paul with my elbow. “Do you think I have big hair?”
“Don't pay any attention to what they say,” he said. “Your hair is fine.”
I felt better but I resolved to look in women's magazines for a new hairstyle. On the other hand, why should I change my appearance because my girls commented on it? I walked along, head held high, high above the crowd. The only problem was that from my vantage point, I could see everyone's hairdo. I kind of crouched down as I walked and stared straight ahead.
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