MEMORY LANE WITH ETHAN

My nephew, Ethan, sitting in the family car, the good ol Impala.
Krissy was super excited about getting this new family car.

I don’t know what made me think of this memory of my nephew, Ethan, who is now 7 … I think. Wait, let me think … yeah, he’s 7 … I feel old now. I was 25 when Ethan was born … I’m sooooo old.

Anyway, here’s one of my favorite memories of Ethan … I think he was about 2 years old when my sister (Krissy) took Ethan to visit some relatives in North Dakota. I think my Krissy’s husband, Jason, went on the trip, too, but I can’t remember. Whatever, Jason’s really not important to the story.

My parents, my other sister (Becky), and I also trekked to North Dakota because of an all-class reunion for my dad and his siblings who went to school in a small farming community.

One of the activities for this big event was a parade … another activity was a run/walk where my uncle tried to persuade me to run in, but I defiantly refused because I wasn’t hauling my tushy out of bed before 8 a.m. This girl likes to sleep.

The parade was Ethan’s first, and I needed to make sure the tyke (reminder, Ethan is about 2 at this time) was ready to collect some candy from the floats. Before the start of the parade, Ethan and I went through a few practice runs.

For some reason, I had some candy already. I stood in the middle of the street where the floats were going to roll through, and I threw candy near him and coached him to go get it. Ethan’s a smart kid, and he picked up on what he needed to do.

At 2 years old, kids are super adorable and super cute, and for some reason, people love throwing extra candy at them. It also helped that Ethan was one of a handful of kids along the curb, where my family had camped for the parade.

Before the start of the parade, one of the relatives gave him a plastic shopping bag for the candy. Ethan did a fantastic job wandering a little bit onto the street to collect the thrown candy. I was very proud of him.

Not only was I proud of him, but his mother, Krissy, was proud. At one point, Ethan was holding a small American flag in one hand and collecting candy with the other. One of our aunts gave him another flag to hold, but Krissy promptly took that away because Ethan needed an empty hand to collec the candy. Mom loves her candy.

For his very first parade, Ethan collected quite the load of candy. My sisters and I were proud of him … so proud, we accidentally left him outside of our aunt and uncle’s house while we (three grown women, I remind you) were picking through the bag of candy.

Krissy finally realized Ethan was missing and then heard him crying outside the house. All three of us raced outside to see him just bawling by the door. Probably not a good memory for him, and a very guilty memory for me, Krissy, and Becky.

I hope to remember Ethan’s first parade for as long as I can, because I remembering laughing (with my sisters) and smiling at Ethan. I don’t know if anyone else remembers the event, but I do … and every time I think about it, I smile.