One thing that 6 learned over the years is that “One can't change one's essential nature”. It all started
out one Friday morning, my bags were packed, and in the trunk of the car, 6 was
all set for a 8:00 am departure to the airport to start the family vacation! 6
was dressed to the 9’s in his best vacation attire. Seersucker short pants, my best white polo shirt with
the blue sailboats, my straight out of the box from Belk Sperry topsiders with
the matching blue and white laces, dammm 6 was styling. You know it is too bad
that 6 doesn’t look like a GQ model because for if he did he would be a walking
advertisement for Belk. 6 was ready to
roll! In 6’s world just because he was ready means nothing, his bag was all
alone in the trunk of the car, just as 6 was sitting in the car all alone. Good
thing he told the crew that we had to leave 1 hour before we really did. We
arrived at the airport, we TSA pre-select, so we were able to just pass right
thru the 1,000 people standing in line, go to the gate in plenty of time found
what we thought was a perfect seat and had nothing left to do but get on the
plane. NICE! Well not so fast… does anyone remember what it was like sitting in
the greyhound bus station in downtown Pittsburgh? Bus fumes, hot, sticky seats,
people standing one on top of each other, need 6 go on! But there is a bright
spot we only have an hour to sit here, not so fast… we now have three hours to
sit here. 6 still had a smile on his face for the alternative would be to be in
a car driving on the family vacation. The three hours passed rather quickly we
loaded ourselves on the bus, drove to the airplane and had to sit and wait for
the crew to come. Picture this a plane full of people in a bus not a cloud in
the sky, and it was an August afternoon, and the bus driver to conserve energy
turned the bus off and within 5 minutes the temp in that bus reach 120 degrees
“Oh Oh the smell”. Trust me the fun
continued until 6A,62 and 6 sat our weary bodies down in the courtyard at the
hotel with several glasses of free Rex! Which means vacation officially
started. After 365 days 0 minutes
and 0 seconds of the enduring
anticipation 6 was sitting in the same chair, in the same courtyard, in the
same city with 6A on his right and 62 on
his left and a tall glass of Rex in his hand, 6 now understands the feeling
that Clark had when he arrived at Wally world! After 4-5 glass we determined
that it was a bit warm outside and determined it would be more relaxing to go
inside and sit on the couches in the atrium and wait for the arrival of 4, 8
and 71. With-in minutes they arrived, we all had several more glasses of
Rex/beer/gin/vodka… all was right with the world! Think about 6 was surrounded
by family in a beautiful atrium on vacation his Belk ware (finally dry from the
sweat) with free Rex! The only thing
left to do was to fill his belly with some grub, after all he just realized he
had nothing to eat since that tuna wrap he ate on the plane “oh oh that smell”.
We all left the comfort of the atrium (Free booze was done) and went out to the
city on a Friday night in August to find a table for 6 ( not me) , although we
think they were trying to find a table for me! Bingo! We found a great place
and had an absolutely wonderful meal. Don’t ask me where it was,(for it was in
some back ally) or the name of the place
(for it was a bar between two restaurants) or even what we ate (you could
choose from the Italian restaurant or the steak restaurant) 6 remember that it
was really NICE, and what he had to eat was messy! After dinner we took are
usual walk around the city, said good night to 4,8 and 71 for they had to go to
the airport to pick-up 0A and 7. We went back to our room to turn in for the
night and 6 discovered that whatever he had for dinner was all over his best
white polo shirt with the blue sailboats and even migrated to his seersucker
short pants. 6 bets he just looked wonderful strutting his stuff on the streets
of Charleston displaying his dinner proudly! “One
can't change one's essential nature” or for the less informed "A tiger doesn’t change his stripes"
Words of wisdom: We strive to have it
all, but in reality we do have it all if we have family.
