Summer: Sun. 6/28
Andrew's been doing a lot of family-tree research, thanks to some old docs we found in our big file cleanout, and last night he discovered that his great-great-great-great-great grandfather, who was a captain in the New Jersey militia during the Revolutionary War, serving under Washington (which we knew), is buried in a cemetery in Springfield, five minutes away from our house (which we didn't know). So this morning we drove out to the cemetery, and Andrew found the gravestone.
Andrew also found a ballad called "Captain Eliakim Littell," a long rhyming poem/song that details Captain Littell's service at the Battle of Springfield in 1780 when zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Sorry. Sorry.
Anyhoo, Andrew found this ballad in a book called Ballads of New Jersey in the Revolution, published in 1896, and...DING DING DING DING! We have a winner, for the ABSOLUTELY SNOOZIEST BOOK ANDREW HAS EVER EMBRACED!! Forgetting for a second the connection to Andrew's family history, it astounds me that such a book even exists. "Ballads of New Jersey" seems like an excellent title for a satirical yet ultimately poignant novel I should write about suburbia.
The kids were underwhelmed by the cemetery visit. I had to wait in the car with the dog. But Andrew's day was made.
How to even carry on after THAT kind of excitement, am I right? But carry on with the day we did. The kids once again absconded to the basement, where they played with Legos for the rest of the day. They literally sit in one place with all their little figures around them and--as far as I can tell--don't really move. They just--play. It's glorious to overhear. We seriously don't see the kids at all for large portions of the day.
Eventually they emerged to swim in the pool.
Meanwhile, Andrew and I turned our cleanout attention to some of the shelves in the library: cookbooks and travel guides. The travel guides have their own dedicated shelf--do you know, children, that there was a time when your father and I traveled all over the world, to far-flung places, often with only a backpack and a guidebook made out of paper and also a paper map etc etc etc. But I digress. We are very very attached to many of our travel guides, especially the ones we relied on in Spain, so those are keepers even though they're completely outdated. Those books are foundational to our marriage. An archive of Our Early Years.
We also found a flyer from the camel races we went to in Reno when I was pregnant with Lucia! (Keeping this, obvs.) There is no end to the things we're unearthing. It's fun to find these treasures buried in all the stuff we don't need.
Andrew also found a ballad called "Captain Eliakim Littell," a long rhyming poem/song that details Captain Littell's service at the Battle of Springfield in 1780 when zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Sorry. Sorry.
Anyhoo, Andrew found this ballad in a book called Ballads of New Jersey in the Revolution, published in 1896, and...DING DING DING DING! We have a winner, for the ABSOLUTELY SNOOZIEST BOOK ANDREW HAS EVER EMBRACED!! Forgetting for a second the connection to Andrew's family history, it astounds me that such a book even exists. "Ballads of New Jersey" seems like an excellent title for a satirical yet ultimately poignant novel I should write about suburbia.
The kids were underwhelmed by the cemetery visit. I had to wait in the car with the dog. But Andrew's day was made.
How to even carry on after THAT kind of excitement, am I right? But carry on with the day we did. The kids once again absconded to the basement, where they played with Legos for the rest of the day. They literally sit in one place with all their little figures around them and--as far as I can tell--don't really move. They just--play. It's glorious to overhear. We seriously don't see the kids at all for large portions of the day.
Eventually they emerged to swim in the pool.
Meanwhile, Andrew and I turned our cleanout attention to some of the shelves in the library: cookbooks and travel guides. The travel guides have their own dedicated shelf--do you know, children, that there was a time when your father and I traveled all over the world, to far-flung places, often with only a backpack and a guidebook made out of paper and also a paper map etc etc etc. But I digress. We are very very attached to many of our travel guides, especially the ones we relied on in Spain, so those are keepers even though they're completely outdated. Those books are foundational to our marriage. An archive of Our Early Years.
We also found a flyer from the camel races we went to in Reno when I was pregnant with Lucia! (Keeping this, obvs.) There is no end to the things we're unearthing. It's fun to find these treasures buried in all the stuff we don't need.
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