Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world.

Special Treat – Dianna Doles Petry

August 18, 2006

Another Day in the Life of Dianna

 Dianna Doles Petry

It's hard to believe that summer is already at the midway point but it is. The children who spend their days with me have been asking to make our normal summer outings and I have not had the time to do that until now. Yesterday I decided that I would have someone to sit with my mother so that I could take the wonderful little darlings on a sight seeing tour and a picnic. You should know me well enough by now to know that it ended up being a full day of adventure and laughter.

As always, I asked all five of the children if they needed to potty before we left the house. As always, all of them insisted that they had been to the bathroom and were ready to survive at least three hours of the day without needing to find a restroom. With boys, it's not such a problem. There are many places to pull off of the highway and their equipment is more readily available for relieving themselves. With the little girls, however, it is an entirely different matter. They not only have to have a "real" restroom, it has to be clean and come complete with mirrors and hand towels.

We began our drive to our first destination, Hawk's Nest, and by the time we arrived, all of the sports drinks the children had carried with them had been absorbed by the chocolate chip cookies that were meant to accompany lunch. I had four younger children squirming around like goldfish that had been spilled on the living room floor and one teenager, (Kyle), who thought the whole thing was hysterically funny. He had to pronounce quite loudly, "Oh, look, Nana, the bathrooms are closed for repairs!"

After the two young boys jumped from the Jeep before it was even in the parking spot and two little girls started to cry and whine that they couldn't wait any longer I told them he was only joking and we headed to the restrooms. You know, I'm feeling my age here. I think they half pulled me up the stone steps to the facilities and I had to catch my breath at the top. LOL

We walked around and enjoyed the park and the scenery a while before jumping back into the Jeep to continue on with our day. I noticed the youngest of the boys doing a lot of spitting so I went to see what was happening. There was a huge beetle of some kind lying on a leaf and I asked Caleb, "Why do you keep spitting like that? It's not polite and it's a bad habit."

"Oh, Nana," he replied, "That's how I cool stuff off in Wisconsin. Once I had to cool my neighbor off when he got to hot but my mom didn't believe me when I told her." Well, imagine that. I suggested that we leave the beetle to fend for himself in the wilderness so that we could proceed with our day.

I had planned to cruise through an area with a few farms. Most children these days have no idea of what real country is like. They think country living is when you live out of town limits and only have satellite television instead of cable television.

As we drove along, we passed a field with several cows grazing. Kyle asked me if there were ever cattle rustlers in this area. I explained that I didn't think we had hundreds of cattle stolen at once but that I'm sure it happened with a few here and there. So, my nephew started to talk about branding the cattle and how some people are so dumb that they should probably be branded too.

The little girls did not find this amusing, especially since Kyle was rolling his eyes in their direction as he was talking. Courtney, in fact, became a bit vocal about the matter of branding ANYTHING! "Kyle, that is so stupid to hurt those animals like that. How would you like somebody to stick a hot poker on your butt? People should just put ribbons on those cows or make them choker collars with their name on it or something!"

Everyone in the Jeep broke out in laughter at the thought of cows going around in pretty pink or blue ribbons and choker collars. She crossed her arms over her chest and closed her eyes saying, "I refuse to listen to any of you." That of course, got another round of laughter since she had closed her eyes and not covered her ears.

By this time we had been away from the house for a full two hours so my passengers were becoming very fatigued from the starvation. It was time to stop for lunch. I found a Dairy Queen with outside seating and pulled my short order tablet from my purse to get the orders written before I even attempted to place them. Once I had made sure that everyone had given me the order they truly wanted and there would be no more changes, I headed for the line to place the order taking one of the boys with me to help with carrying it back to the table.

After about three or four minutes, it was our turn to order. I began to give the order to the waitress; six cheeseburgers, four fries, an order of mozzarella cheese sticks and six waters. Something behind me jabbed into my back and I turned to see an elderly woman (I'm guess a good 75 years old) standing there in a string bikini. Yes, a string bikini. She wanted to tell me how I was "killing those innocent children with your determination to feed them meat."

"Look at me," she said as she ran her bony fingers down her chest, "I am still thin and can wear the same size I wore when I was sixteen-years-old."

Cole, the boy who was going to help me carry the food looked directly at her and then turned towards the ordering window. He pushed his head through the opening and said, "Make that eight cheeseburgers, please!" He quickly added, "Nana," I'll get money from my dad for the extra ones, I don't want to look like that!"

To make matters worse, as we sat down to eat the food when it finally arrived the old lady sat down at the table next to us. Cole had already informed everyone else about what happened at the window and Kyle had a digital camera taking snapshots of her sipping her water as she ate her lettuce and tomato while Caleb made his eyes bulge, chewed with his mouth open and imitated cattle sounds between each bite. (I tried to stop him, I really did!)

Back into the Jeep we went to head to the New River Gorge Bridge. Here is a view from the guest center there, I think you can see why I enjoy going there so much.

We had a really nice time seeing the displays there in the center and we walked down to the bottom of the gorge. My legs felt like lead by the time we made it back up to the top but it was well worth the trip. The boys were upset that the New River Gorge Bridge is no longer the largest steel arch span in the world. They're thinking we should rebuild it and make it even bigger. I suggested that they might want to start saving now since I'm sure that the government would expect a little financial help with a project of that magnitude.

Choices, choices! Let's see, a hot dog at the gift shop or save for a new bridge. Hot dog, bridge, hot dog, bridge.......what do you think they chose? Yes, the hot dogs won out! I had enough wrappers in the back of the Jeep that I could have saved them to weave a new winter rug for the dining room.

Of course, what day is complete without a stop at the souvenir shop? I was looking at the books full of West Virginia heritage, Kyle was checking out t-shirts and skull and cross bones patches, the younger boys were checking out the teenager working behind the counter and the girls were checking out crabs. Yes, crabs!

Just as I was ready to check out, Courtney and Nicole came running up to me saying, "They have crabs!! We want crabs!! Please can we have some crabs, Nana?" Everyone in the shop burst out laughing and Kyle exclaimed, "Good grief you two are so dumb, most people want to get rid of crabs, not carry them home!" Another round of laughter. I left the shop with nothing for me, a couple of t-shirts for the boys and rattlesnake eggs for the girls. They're lucky I didn't find them some already hatched!

We ended the day by stopping to feed some ducks and walk a little more before heading home. I don't think the ducks enjoyed the sour tarts that the boys tried to give them but they were beautiful to watch.

We got home to find my mother watching a silent movie. She insisted that we sit down and watch it with her. Chris had come home before we got there and he was watching it and smiling. "Mom," he said, "She must have hit the mute button and thinks it's a silent movie. She's watching it better like this than she does with the sound on so I didn't fix it."

There were happy there, just the two of them, watching Chuck Norris do round house kicks to villains in total silence. You know what, it sounded pretty darn good!

And that, my friends, is the story of how I spent my day.

Love and hugs,

Dianna Doles Petry

Dianna59@charter.net