Company’s Come!

My sister JoAnne and my niece Natalie arrived earlier this week for a visit. I picked them up at DFW on Wednesday, early afternoon. Flight on time, bags arrived. Then we made a stop to take some family photos to one of David’s nieces and her husband, who told us the story of how, yes, he did, indeed, deliver his newest son, in their car in the hospital parking lot! What a guy!

Then, after a stop at In-and-Out Burger, a nice safe trip back to Waco. I didn’t realize how long it had been since they’d been here. JoAnne kept saying things like, “Oh, look, your new countertops” (2013), and “Oh, you moved the treadmill in here!” (also 2013). And that sort of thing. And, a good night’s rest.

It’s been several years since Natalie lived here and ‘way more years since JoAnne lived here (even though she’s visited), but there’ve been lots of changes, including the new way that we’re sort of famous now. (Yes, we’ve been famous for lots of things in the recent past, but we don’t need to go there, do we.)

JoAnne and Natalie playing a “Connect Four” type game while we’re waiting for our turn to have breakfast.

So, yesterday morning, off to the be part of the Magnolia phenomenon. First-Magnolia Table. Not too long a wait. Delicious breakfast. Delightful waitress (who actually had attended, for one year, the same elementary school where JoAnne and I went).

Then, on to the Silos. No problem parking, not too crowded in the store. It is summer in Central Texas, so we didn’t spend much time enjoying the outdoor fun stuff there. And, for the next month, Thursdays-Saturdays, the original Magnolia store is open, selling “last chance and slightly damaged” items at a discount. So we went there, too.

Natalie and I were a little confused by this. Is Abraham Lincoln trying to convince Civil War contemporaries that they should be partying like Revolutionary-era folks?

We visited a shopping area in a downtown warehouse, where many small shops have space for selling a wide variety of interesting, modern, antique, decorative, and functional things. We drove around the Baylor area and looked at all the new buildings now siting on the sites of places where Natalie shopped (the old HEB grocery store) and lived.

We went to Lowe’s and to Target, looking for a new coiled hose for me. As we were walking into Target, I said, “Did we eat lunch?” Hmmm. I guess we didn’t. So, after Target, we went to Schmaltz’s Sandwich Shop, a long time favorite of the family. JoAnne did mention that, when she was looking up how to spell it, she discovered that “Schmaltz” means “rendered chicken fat.” “Do you suppose they know?” she asked, while we were eating our yummy sandwiches that do not seem to have any rendered chicken fat in them. “I suppose if it was that easy for you to discover, that many other diners have discovered it, also. And probably have felt like they should know,” I said. “But I don’t know that we should want to chat with them about it.”

We went to the second-hand book store next to the sandwich shop, bought some books, and came home.

One of the tasks we hope to complete/reach a half-way point/at least get started on, is to go through some boxes and bags of our parents’ memorabilia (letters, photos, documents) and determine what can be discarded, what should be kept, and what we’re individually willing to deal with. It could take a while.

I don’t know how much ground we’ll cover. Maybe we’ll find some interesting, unknown, unusual things. Maybe we’ll see our parents in a new light. Probably we’ll find the same sorts of things, attitudes, and ideas with which we’re already pretty familiar. As JoAnne often says, “It’ll be an adventure.”