Remembering

 Remembering: when I was growing up we would stay with my grandparents often and my grandma used to look after five grandchildren: myself, my two brothers and cousins. She had to be creative entertaining us while my grandfather took his daily after lunch nap. She taught us how to play canasta it is a VERY LONG game that would keep us quiet except when someone won the center card stack “se llevo el pozo!!” which would lead to loud cheers and teasing of the fool who gave the stack away. She would also have the five of us pluck her gray hair. She would sit on a stool while my grandfather napped and in order for us to be quiet she would give us tweezers and we would pluck out her gray hairs. This was fun ... and I think the reason why at age 80 she still had a full head of black hair. She would also take us to their ranch and pack the back of a blue station wagon full of food. A couple of us would sit in the back bench of the car holding our legs high above large aluminum foil covered containers of rice and refried beans. When we got there she would take the mattresses of the three beds off the box spring and lay them on the floor to make 6 beds so that we each had our own. In the evenings she would give us glass jars with holes on the lid so we could catch lightning bugs and sit down with them in our hands to listen to my grandfather tell his ongoing story of the new adventures of a tiger. Today ... looking up at the smoky moonless sky I think - we’ve GOT TO make changes so that kids can have a planet 🌍 where they can enjoy their grandparents.