What is the saying about having company for an extended time?  Is it something about smelling dead fish?  Having Alpha and Hazel for close to three weeks was actually a lot of fun but it was also very nice when they headed home and life around the house could settle back into being more normal.  Normal that summer seemed to be playing with children all day.

It was very interesting to find out that so many of the children in Riverton did not have much of an idea about what lied beyond the city limits.  The reason I had taken the children to Philadelphia and other interesting places the summer before was that I discovered that so many of them had never seen the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, the Art Museum or many of the other sights within a few miles of where they lived.

When I was growing up, even though vacations were out of the question, my parents did take us on adventures to Tulsa to the zoo, the art museum, Branson, Missouri when it was only a post office and little grocery store and once to Oklahoma City to see an exhibit on atoms and stars. My poor children were dragged to everything within a day's driving time every place we lived.  This was my inspiration for the children's library field trips.

That summer we did the historical part of Philadelphia as they all wanted to see the Liberty Bell again, added the Ben Franklin Museum which turned into two trips to see everything but the best one was the ship museum. Philadelphia had a tall ship moored at Market Square with a wonderful museum. For the sum of fifty cents per child they would do a program on sailing ships. The children sat in a little auditorium while a gentleman explained how the Vikings, Christopher Columbus and the tall ships sailed the seas.

I must say I was as spellbound as the children when we learned about the Vikings in the open boats covered with animal skins to keep from freezing and how the boats rocked back and forth.  The perils Christopher Columbus faced sailing in those three really tiny ships when so many at that time thought the world was flat and they would simply fall off the edge and finally the magnificent Tall Ships.  After the lecture they toured the museum with artifacts from the Titanic and other ships.
A history lesson for them all to remember.

The children's books were flying off the shelf.  They all wanted the chance to win a trip to the shore again at the end of the summer.  But the fun part for them was getting to do another play.  Doing a short version of the Wizard of Oz last summer was great but available children's plays was a little slim and most of them were pretty simple.  While tanning on the beach I got the idea that all the children loved Sesame Street, it had great characters and I had watched enough of the shows that I knew something about how the story lines went so I just wrote a play.

The story line was that Donny Osmond came to visit Sesame Street.  Miss Piggy was, of course, in love with him tossing Kermit aside, Statler and Waldorf sat of to the side heckling everyone, especially Fozzie Bear. There were dancing mice, The Count, Oscar, Big Bird and all the other characters.  Needless to say the children loved the idea and everyone pretty well picked out the part they wanted to be without arguing or getting hurt feelings. The hardest part of the whole production was my discovery that the kindergarten age cast members did not know how to read the script. After the tears dried up the rest of the cast helped them to simply memorize their lines. My dear son Wes had to play Donnie Osmond since he was the oldest, tallest and would not have been in the play if he had to play some other part.

I will never be able to figure out how thirty children put on a flawless performance to a standing room only audience.  The parents had really jumped in and helped on costumes, we used our scenery from the 4th of July float and the children had done an awesome job of learning all their lines and the songs in less then four weeks  when practice was pretty limited with all the other things going on. My only thought was that in giving them a play with characters they understood and really thought of as their friends made the difference.  I was in tears before it was over as I was so proud of them.

Perhaps the programs at the Library were a little over the top and not usually what a Library does.  But I have to admit that their were a couple of reasons for my planning them.  First, the Library was my job and after I learned the Dewey Decimal System there was not much to do except ordering new books and being nice to the Library patrons.The job needed to be fun and interesting in order for me to want to go to work everyday.  

The second reason was really rather selfish.  I had two boys ages thirteen and nine who needed something to do everyday while I was at work. No way were they going to do well with a babysitter or sit at the Library all day.  So I just came up with things they would like to do and let the rest of the children in town join in.  It turned out to be a win win situation for everyone involved.  The children got to see their friends everyday, they read a lot of books, learned a lot of historical facts, got to be in plays that the school did not have time for and stayed busy and happy all summer. Unlike most parents I was always sad when school started and summer was over.

That summer I was a little too busy to go to the Friday Craft/Pot-Luck Lunch/Swimming Pool Party at Bay's House.  It was a gathering of the lifelong Riverton ladies, their children and grandchildren. Bay was a lady in her sixties, a Quaker with a heart of gold who taught every child in Riverton how to swim every summer.  She had gotten to the point where she did not hear very well and could not wear her hearing aids in the pool. My oldest son, Wes, swam like a fish from the time he was five. At the start of the summer Bay asked if Wes could help her with the swimming lessons as she would not be able to hear the children in the pool.

I was a little surprised that she asked.  Wes was, shall we say, at times a child who would make any parent want to drink being highly energetic, always coming up with some big deal and always moving at the speed of light. His attributes were that he was very intelligent, very articulate and an amazing artist for his age even if he did only draw race cars and drag strip layouts. He, for whatever reason wanted to help Bay and part of my planning for all the Library activities that summer worked around his swimming schedule.  If I had any doubts that Wes could help Bay I was certainly wrong.  He not only did a great job he also became the preteen idol of every child that took the lessons.  He rather liked being the local idol and I was very pleased to know he could behave so well in public.

Just before Labor Day when I thought the fun of the summer was over and it was time to start thinking about school for both the boys and I we got a surprise invitation.  Sis and Gus, my neighbors and best friends, had a daughter and son-in-law that lived in Williamsburg, Va.  He was the Lt. Governor and the crowds of people were at times more than they could bear so they bought a huge rambling old house on Block Island, Rhode Island for a peaceful place to getaway too.  

Needless to say Dennis was not overwhelmed with the thought of spending five days with a bunch of old people on an island fifty miles out in the Long Island Sound.  But this time he was out voted by two very excited sons and his wife.

It was one of those trips that even with the typical vacation problems with Dennis it was like dying and going to heaven.  However what happened when we returned home is something that makes me wonder how anyone could be so cruel and heartless.  I could understand Dennis doing that to me but how could he do it to the boys?