My Last Run

When I left Vietnam in 1968 I promised myself that I would not do any more running unless someone was shooting at me. I was able to keep that promise until 2006.

In the summer of 2006, Nancy and I took our granddaughters, Marisa (aka M&M) age 6 and Tera (aka Terror) age 4 to the Sonoma County Fair. At lunch time, in the crowded picnic area, we managed to find a picnic table. Nancy left me with the girls and went to get our lunch from the food concession stand. I was sitting there talking to my granddaughters and suddenly Terror waves her hand at me and says “bye” and takes off running. I sure was surprised at this and watched her fade in the distance and crowd. Big debate, do I leave Marisa and go after Tera? Do I abandon the hard-to-get picnic table and take Marisa along to run down Terror? Do I say good riddance and wait for Tera to come back or not?

Alas, I told Marisa not to leave the table and I started walking after Terror. She was getting further away and hard to see in the crowd. I walked faster, so did she. I started to jog and was not gaining ground. Finally, I broke my promise and ran. Darn, I caught Tera and dragged (ok carried) her back to Nancy and Marisa who, much to my surprise, were happy to see Terror or more likely me.

Sometimes you need to break a promise. But the way I figured it, had I lost Tera her Mother and Grandmother would have been shooting at me.

I now confess that I look forward to the possibility of slowly chasing a great grandchild. However, my grand girls (Marisa, age 20 and Tera, age 17) need not hurry on this account. I am willing to wait for their brother Connor (aka perpetual motion) age 10 on July 31, to be the first to give me a great grandchild to run after.