Restless Kids and Rainy Days

This is a rewrite of an article that 
appeared in The Virginia Beach Sun, August 24, 1988.


I think sometimes the biggest overriding factor in raising kids might just be luck.

As the former governor of Maine, James B. Langley’s mother told him at his graduation, “Despite all the honors, there is one circumstance more than any other that will determine the turnout at your funeral. And that will be the weather.

That was luck Mrs. Langley was talking about.

Take summer vacations—please!

Our kids, Jessica, eight; Danielle, six; and Dylan, four were all at the age where they were pretty much confined to the house, the yard and the immediate neighborhood. Kathy and I knew that we would have to have some kind of a plan going into the summer.

Fullerton, California

I was recently in Fullerton visiting my daughter and her husband. The three of us attended the Thursday night Farmer’s Market and I learned about the website www.fullertonstories.com. Here is my Fullerton story.

In a nation that talks about the American small town in the past tense I would like to say that the small town atmosphere we all long for is alive and well in Fullerton. With a population of 132,000, Fullerton isn’t a small town but the Fourth of July fireworks show—free and easily accessible to everyone and the abundance of block parties going on that day—made it easy to think I had stepped back in time. In fact the last block party I attended may have been back in New York in the 1960’s.

I have been to many firework displays over the years but the playing a patriotic music to accompany the show is also a practice unique to Fullerton—at least in my experience. This was my second Fourth of July in Fullerton and I expect to be back again next year.

There is a section on the Fullerton Stories website entitled “Word on the Street.” Let me tell you what the word is on the 2500 mile-long Route 40, probably one of the longest streets in the country. I was driving in Oklahoma on my return to Virginia Beach and had stopped at a MacDonald’s. I was wearing a Fullerton tee shirt and walking to a table when a couple stopped me. They said they lived in Fullerton many years ago. I smiled, told them I had just been visiting my daughter there and thought that was the end of it. But he wasn’t finished. He leaned over and added, “Tell your daughter we are very (and he emphasized the word very) envious of her.

So that is the word on the street.