Life, Work & Wonder

Tag: grandparents

  • The Magic of Tick Tick Tick Tick Tick

    Tick Tick Tick Tick Tick.

    Is there any sound more powerful, authoritative, magical, than the Tick Tick Tick Tick Tick of 60 Minutes?

    That sound whisks me back 40 years, maybe even 50 years. To sitting in my grandparents’ living room on a Sunday evening after a family dinner. To All In The Family, and Barney Miller, and Mel’s Diner. To grandma and grandpa (and my cousin Gus) still alive and well. To mom and dad being in their youthful prime, Karrie being a kid. To knowing that my school friends would be at school with me the next day. It takes me back to Little League baseball. Youth basketball. 89er football. Dungeons and Dragons.

    Carter and/or Reagan are President. People still have pensions. Newspapers are still a thing. I have my entire life still ahead of me. And grandma and grandpa (and Gus) are still alive and well. And we’re all still young.

    60 Minutes isn’t perfect. It’s an entertainment show. But how much I love that Tick Tick Tick Tick Tick. And how it whisks me back in time to youth and Sunday evenings with my family.

    I love that Tick Tick Tick Tick Tick Tick so much. It’s magical. It’s a time machine. And I don’t even know (or care) if 60 Minutes is still on the air. I’m just grateful to the person who thought, You know what would be great? Opening the show with a giant pocket watch that goes Tick Tick Tick Tick Tick. Whereever they are, thank you for the magic you continue to bring me.

  • Every Single Year July 7th Is A Happy Day For Me Thanks To A Single Moment In 1977

    Yesterday was July 7th. July 7th is honestly one of my favorite dates each and every year.

    It’s not my birthday. It’s not Christmas. It’s not even a national holiday. But it’s a date where every single year I remember all four of my grandparents, the last of whom passed away 24 years ago (2002). Because I can still see my grandparents and my parents sitting in a circle in the backyard on a sunny July 7th 1977 chatting away about, of all things, the date. The reason I remember that this was July 7th 1977 is because that date was all 7’s — 7/7/77 — and I remember my grandparents talking about that and my dad’s dad saying, “The next one of these isn’t until August 1988” like they couldn’t believe that 1988 was actually in the distant horizon.

    It’s funny to think about July 7th 1977.

    For starters, 1988 was still 11 entire years away. But more than that Elvis was still alive. Let me repeat that. Elvis — who seems like he has been gone as long as Jesus or Muhammad or George Washington — was alive. He’d actually die a few weeks later, which I remember because a few weeks later I was riding with my friend Darryl’s family to the state fair while the radio was broadcasting news about Elvis’s death.

    Another strange thing about that date in 1977? The very first Star Wars was truly a monster first run hit in the actual theaters, wherein it seemed like every citizen in the entire country was patiently waiting in lines that were hours long for the privilege of seeing it for the first time. My family actually went to see it twice, something we never did (note: VCRs and even cable TV were not yet a thing — those would come in the early (cable) to mid (VCRs) 80s).

    But more than the events surrounding that time and that date, what I most remember is my four grandparents sitting together in my backyard with my parents who were just turning 30, discussing the “neat” feature about it being July 7th 1977 or 7777.

    Happiness are things that jog fond memories. Especially when those memories include loved ones who passed long ago. Because just like that the magic of the brain conjures a moment from the past that we can soak in for a few moments and actually feel the happiness around us. For me, happy memories are one of the great Sorcerers of Life, a Sorcerer who visits me every July 7th, which in this case was yesterday.

    Wishing you a happy memory today.