Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

View from the restaurant where we had dinner Saturday

This weekend The Gryphon and I visited my parents to celebrate my birthday and also to pick out one of my mom's kittens to adopt. They were several months old and had been birthed by a stray cat in her backyard.

Things didn't go exactly as planned.

We arrived at my dad's place a little bit earlier than we had expected. He greeted us with a cheerful hello, and we walked downtown to view the stands for the annual Harvest Festival. We had about 45 minutes before the parade was to start, which always marches right by his office.

At one stand someone called out my name and I turned and saw my junior high school chorus teacher, someone who had also been a frequent source for me once I became a local newspaper reporter. We chatted and I introduced her to The Gryphon. She had a dog tied to the stand who looked half Pug, and I asked her his name. She said, "He's Winston, but he's not mine" and gestured to the Class President, helping to staff a booth for the historical society right next to hers.

He came over, gave me a hug and we talked for a bit. He was all tanned and healthy looking, having just returned from a trip to Cape Cod. As we were chatting, he mentioned a local artists group which I promised to tell my mom about, she being a talented amateur artist.

At the end of the street, we bought some chicken pitas from the most popular food vendor, and though we had to stand in line, the wait was worth it.

People were lined up and down the main street of town in their chairs and on blankets, waiting for the parade. It was kind of fun to people watch as we walked by.

Back at Dad's place, I was just putting my purchases in the trunk of my car when my mom walked across the parking lot with a grim look on her face. She waited until my dad left to set up chairs for the parade before she spoke, and then she hugged me, put her head on my shoulder and said, "It was so terrible."

"What's wrong?" I asked, thinking that something had happened to a close family member or friend. She had taken four of the kittens from that litter to the vet that morning to get them their first shots. While there, she had them checked for feline leukemia. All of them had it. All of them had to be euthanized.

This means it's entirely likely all the stray cats she's been feeding, the ones she hasn't managed to trap and get immunized, likely have it, as well. And possibly three of her own cats, who are behind a couple months in their vaccinations.

I stood there hugging her for a long time, stroking her hair and telling her that she had done more than could have been expected for these stray animals. After all, they weren't really her responsibility. They were the offspring of cats that had been left behind years ago by an irresponsible neighbor, who moved out leaving behind a litter of kittens. Mom has been putting out food for them and, when possible, capturing them and having them immunized and getting them spayed and neutered. But she wasn't able to capture all of them; hence, the kittens.

So it was a tragic blow. All the cat supplies we had stowed in my trunk now seemed cruelly ironic. When we told him, my dad was immediately sympathetic. He's also an animal lover.

The Gryphon and I were disappointed, of course, and I was saddened, mostly for my mom's sake. After all, she'd gotten to know these animals, and while I was looking forward to adopting one, I'd never met them. I knew it was much harder on her.

The parade was starting in a matter of minutes. We took chairs out front to watch it. I sat next to Mom and tried to be sympathetic and get her spirits up by helping her to think about something else.

It seemed like the parade was shorter than it has been in the past. They only had two high school marching bands, including the local high school. There were a number of local bands, including two bagpipe bands, in addition to tractors, fire trucks and floats from local churches and organizations. Many of them seemed more than happy to pose for me when they saw my camera, even Jesus.

Mom did smile occasionally, more at my comments about things than about anything else. I think it did help her to have something to distract her.

We had called my sister on the cell phone to update her and tell her to meet us at Dad's place rather than Mom's place. You see, she has two cats and we didn't want her to come in contact with anything that could therefore transfer the disease to her cats, until we get more information. Mom, however, is following her vet's instructions for cleaning and sterilizing her place, and she's going to have all her cats checked out, starting with the questionable ones.

It turns out, upon doing some further research, that the virus is not so easily transmitted. The Cornell Feline Health Center has a great informational article on the disease. The Animal Health Channel also provides some useful information.

After the parade ended, I walked back downtown with my parents while The Gryphon took a nap. We wanted to get back to the booths we liked before they shut down. First, we stopped at the jewelry stand, where Mom offered to buy me a necklace. I chose a choker with multiple beads on independent wires. It's really extravagant looking, and I love it.

Then we walked back to the tie dye stand where Dad got me two tie-dyed tank tops in my size, for a birthday present. This was a surprise, because I'd called him and expressed an interest in a sewing machine for a birthday gift. But he never said anything about it all weekend, so I'm thinking he might be planning on it for a Christmas gift.

At this point, we got a cell phone call from my sister and her husband, who had arrived at Dad's place. We told them where we were, and they told us they'd walk up and meet us. She looked fantastic. She was wearing a black off-the-shoulder shirt with a long black skirt and colorful accents in the form of a blue sequined belt and matching beret. I wanted a full-length picture with her husband, because he was wearing a snazzy blue shirt that matched (though they insisted they hadn't planned this. But my sister said that she didn't want her picture taken in front of all those people, and I never did get the shot I wanted.

My sister immediately hugged Mom, who broke down in tears. Dad and I, along with The Gryphon, gave them a little time to themselves while we walked down to the booth which had the funky bag I was interested in. Dad got that for me, too.

When we returned to them, Mom was more composed. We all walked through the craft booths one more time. When we passed the stand where earlier we'd run into the Class President, we now saw a group gathered around him of the girl who'd been coeditor of the yearbook with me, one of the top female Basketball Stars from my class, and the Homecoming Queen, two of whom had toddlers with them who looked a lot like them. All of them had independently waved cheery greetings to me when I'd seen them earlier.

At first I thought it was funny to see the popular crowd together again, and also to realize they had never left. But as I thought about it, it made more sense. After all, none of them had had any reason to want to leave this town. They'd been at the top of their game here.

I also had another revelation: one of the reasons they were always so nice to me was that, as an editor of the school newspaper and coeditor of the yearbook, I had helped perpetuate their glory. Though as popular groups go, this was always a pretty nice bunch. There were a lot nastier people in the school, running in various other cliques. I think it's part of being that age. Honestly, much as I used to compare myself to them and find myself wanting, these were never the people in school who had picked on me or treated me badly.

At the jewelry booth, Mom also offered to get my sister a necklace. At first she protested, saying that it wasn't her birthday, but Mom said to go ahead and choose one because she the boost was only here during the festival. If I'd thought about it, I would have told my sister that Mom's main present to me, at my request, was going to be to make me another set of quilted placemats, like the ones she'd given me for Christmas. We were going to choose the material on Sunday.

After a leisurely look at the booths, those of us who wanted to changed our clothes and then headed out for our reservations at a nice Mexican restaurant in the area, where we planned to sit at an outside table and enjoy the view and the food.

Before we went, we took some time for me to open the present from my sister and her husband. I'd requested she get me some sort of decorative accent for the dresser in our bedroom, something sculptural, I said. She outdid herself, providing a beautiful sculpture with an equally beautiful purple scalloped glass plate to rest it on, along with some polished stones and candles to set around the base. I'm sure when I get it set up, it will be just what I wanted. In fact, even better than that.

Even though it's possible to be extremely bad at a Mexican radio, I was good, ordering a crab cake dinner, one of the few things on the menu not loaded down in cheese and sour cream.

One of the reasons I was being good was to save room for dessert, and it's a good thing. After I ordered a scoop of ice cream with chocolate syrup, they brought me, at no charge, a sundae with strawberries, whipped cream, sprinkles and a candle on top. I was genuinely pleasantly surprised and blew out the candle. Turns out my sister had snuck inside and talked to the wait staff. She really is sweet.

She tells me she was relieved when I ordered dessert, because she knows I'm being careful how I eat and wanted to make sure I'd appreciate it. I thanked her. She also thoughtfully took pictures of everyone at the table, so that I could actually be in some of them for once, along with The Gryphon (though the light was bright and he was squinting in most of them).

Mom went home then but the rest of us hung out at Dad's for awhile before my sister and her husband had to drive home to Bellefonte. We had fun talking and also looking up funny things on eBay, such as 1980s prom gowns.

All in all, despite the morning's tragic events, I'd had a good day. My family really came together and let me know I was loved.

Copyright 2005 by Alyce Wilson

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