Historical Reenactment

This afternoon as the wind whipped a crazy array of hailstones and sunbreaks past our house, Lauren and I sat in the living room discussing our parents' vinyl records and drinking tea while keeping half an ear tuned for sounds of catastrophe from the children, who had piled all the couch pillows at the bottom of the stairs and taken the boogie board to the top.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Menna stood on the porch, suitcase in hand, looking like something out of Mary Poppins, or Paddington Bear:


We invited her in, admired her outfit, and asked about the suitcase. She said she was running away; we expressed our sorrow at her impending departure. Further questioning revealed that mostly she was trying to avoid having to go stand on the sidelines at Bronwen's soccer game -- and really, given the weather, who can blame her?

The discussion turned to a scene in Ramona and Her Mother where Ramona announces that she's running away, and is shocked and crushed when her mother, instead of begging her to stay, cheerfully begins to pack a bag. Gradually it becomes clear, as she adds more and more books and coats and rollerskates to the suitcase, that she's trying to make it too heavy for Ramona to move. Finally Ramona realizes what she's up to -- it's a very sweet scene.

Lauren recalled the time she and Lexi decided to run away, and the only thing they thought to take with them was a mattress. They set out down the block, each dragging one end of the mattress, secure in the knowledge that no matter what happened, they'd have a place to sleep.

From there it was but a short leap to the story about the time Lauren and I were bored, so we got out the big blue cloth tunnel from the playroom, stood it on its end, got inside, and waddled down to the Fireside Market just to see what would happen.

At about this time, Simon and Ioan burst into the room with our two cloth tunnels, and asked if it was okay to ride down the stairs inside them, with the boogie board underneath. Even as we tried to wrap our minds around the physics of this request, Josie and Irene hatched a different plan.

Fortunately for all of you, Menna agreed to bring the camera along, and to document their reenactment of that historic trip to Fireside:




(Lauren and I didn't remember stopping to consume chocolate caramels on the original journey -- but then back in sunny Santa Monica we hadn't had to face hailstones, 40-mph gusts of wind, or temperatures in the 30's.)

By the time the brave adventurers returned triumphant, Bronwen's soccer game had been called off (because the goalposts kept blowing away), a rainbow was shining in the East, and Menna had decided to give her family another chance.