MOVING DAY

It pays to be busy sometimes. The razzle-dazzle helps to ease the pain of seeing our son, this time, along with his family, move out. Lucky for us, it isn’t too painful.

After moving back from a one-year hiatus in Portland, Oregon, they perched with us for five months while scouting for housing and purchasing their first abode (see below). Their baby, our precious first grandchild, at merely nine weeks from birth, spent those five months of her first year bonding with us. While it’s never easy to part, they bought a house practically a stone’s throw away, an easy eight-minute drive in the adjoining town.

The closing was 3:00 p.m. on the Monday before Thanksgiving. Our daughter and her husband flew in from Los Angeles on the red-eye and arrived just after 7:00 a.m. on that very day to spend the week in New Jersey.

The next day, the movers unloaded the U-Haul, which Judd had driven across the country, accompanied by his brother Moss, on the route from Portland to Judd’s wife’s family in Cleveland. All their belongings stayed in storage until Judd flew out to load up again and this time drive the packed U-Haul solo from Cleveland to its final destination…New Jersey.

On the fourth Wednesday in November, Judd and Moss hopped onto the same train after their workday in NYC. Moss retreated from his Upper West Side apartment to celebrate the long Thanksgiving weekend with family. Our two sons quickly packed the emptied U-Haul with the belongings of the young family and embarked on that eight-minute drive with the goods they had stowed at our house.

For five months, I was joyfully busy, back to a family of five, just as the many years my husband and I were raising our three children. Now, my usual busy schedule is sure to include lots of eight-minute drives. After a ten-day vacation, I’m ready to put my car in drive and step on the gas. My baby granddaughter and I can resume our cheerful renditions of The Hokey Pokey—and, as the question posed on the sign below, spotted on our vacation in South Carolina suggests, those standing around may contemplate: Maybe the Hokey Pokey really is what it’s all about…