"Good family life is never an accident but always an achievement by those who share it." -
- James H.S. Bossard
- James H.S. Bossard
I'm back from my trip to Las Vegas where we celebrated my dad Fred's, eightieth birthday. The photo above may be the only one taken with us all together. We stopped talking and laughing just long enough to take a serious picture and resumed as soon as it was snapped. We're a loud family, from left to right: Les, Jason, Clara, Fred, Mel and me.
I'm the oldest of the brood, followed by Mel who lives in Las Vegas. When he lived in Kona, Mel had a machine shop and besides fabricating car and truck parts, he manufactured coffee pulpers and roasters used by many private label Kona Coffee farmers. His love of cars and racing took him to Las Vegas, he has a machine shop and is the driver on a drag-racing team.
Les lives in San Francisco and works at the Huntington Hotel, a beautiful place on Nob Hill. He loves to travel and he's a track and field fan so he's flying to Japan next month to watch a championship event.
Jason is the youngest and works in New York. I got to visit him last October and got a taste of what life is like in the "big city". I helped him learn to read before he even went to kindergarten, and he now helps me with all things web-connected. A task that doesn't end, unlike learning to read.
We all have our own families so Fred and Clara have five grandchildren and one great-grandchild as well as the bragging rights for each child. We're a strong, happy family, in my opinion. We each have our talents, likes and dislikes, strengths and idiosyncrasies, parents included. We manage somehow, to treat it all with humor. No one ever says, "just kidding", which tells you that there's a basic amount of love and trust in each verbal jab.
In the opening chapter of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, he says, "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." There are dusty theories of birth order and sibling rivalry which for us, time and separation seem to dilute. Our intent was to celebrate, catch up with our lives and make sure our folks enjoyed themselves. Nothing stood in our way.
I'm the oldest of the brood, followed by Mel who lives in Las Vegas. When he lived in Kona, Mel had a machine shop and besides fabricating car and truck parts, he manufactured coffee pulpers and roasters used by many private label Kona Coffee farmers. His love of cars and racing took him to Las Vegas, he has a machine shop and is the driver on a drag-racing team.
Les lives in San Francisco and works at the Huntington Hotel, a beautiful place on Nob Hill. He loves to travel and he's a track and field fan so he's flying to Japan next month to watch a championship event.
Jason is the youngest and works in New York. I got to visit him last October and got a taste of what life is like in the "big city". I helped him learn to read before he even went to kindergarten, and he now helps me with all things web-connected. A task that doesn't end, unlike learning to read.
We all have our own families so Fred and Clara have five grandchildren and one great-grandchild as well as the bragging rights for each child. We're a strong, happy family, in my opinion. We each have our talents, likes and dislikes, strengths and idiosyncrasies, parents included. We manage somehow, to treat it all with humor. No one ever says, "just kidding", which tells you that there's a basic amount of love and trust in each verbal jab.
In the opening chapter of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, he says, "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." There are dusty theories of birth order and sibling rivalry which for us, time and separation seem to dilute. Our intent was to celebrate, catch up with our lives and make sure our folks enjoyed themselves. Nothing stood in our way.