Car Nostalgia--Hard to Imagine

I hate to admit it, but I've been missing my car. I know, how contradictory is it to miss a car when all I do is vehemently complain about driving? Although it seems implausible, I have been missing the suburban Mom Mobile, which was being driven cross country these last couple of weeks. The pangs for my car didn't start until a few days ago when I got tired of the rental we've been driving since arriving on the Vineyard. Then the fixation on the arrival of my car took hold. It doesn't help that every other car on the island is the same model, so that every turn seemed to bring, yet another, reminder that my car was somewhere between LA and Woods Hole.

I can say with some relief that the car arrived, albeit late, in one piece. I drove it over to Vineyard Haven to drop off my son's play date. Yes, I do drive on the Vineyard. But let me stress that the average driving speed on the island is 35 miles per hour. Everyone drives like an old person, so the driving is perfectly suited for my octogenarian style.

The weather today was muggy and hot. The heat here is different than the stinging heat from the sun in LA. Although the humidity can be oppressive, all of us know that a thunderstorm will take that humidity away. It's fascinating what happens to kids when their days are ruled by the changes in weather. When it is a rainy day, my son knows that he will not be going to the beach. And that all activities will take place indoors, most likely at the library and the carousel. I can remember rainy summer days when you were trapped indoors, coming up with things to do. It is these days when the hours seem to stretch in front that your mind, or rather, your imagination is given time to flourish. Unlike our current over-involved parenting, my parents and the parents of all my friends did very little to offer us diversions for those rainy days. Instead, we were told to keep ourselves busy. For me, I usually spent those days reading whatever book I was engrossed in. And when at camp, we would spend the day working on art projects or any other projects that took place inside. The weather-forced interruptions were a pain, but in retrospect I see how invaluable they were to developing all of these other aspects to your growth.

Life in a place where the weather doesn't offer such dramatic changes makes one create these interruptions. While in LA, my son didn't feel the need to savor every moment of a perfect summer day since each day was the same as the day before, and would continue to be for the next four to five months. His days were not ruled by the drift of clouds across the sun. Instead, once the sun came up in the sky, we were certain it would remain there unblemished by a cloud until the sun set at the end of the day. The weather is less a part of the foreground, instead it simply fades away, becoming inconsequential. Some would argue that they don't need the drama of clouds, rain, thunder and wind. But I would argue that a child who learns to deal with the ever-changing fluctuations of weather will learn some invaluable lessons. What they are I'm still sorting out for myself. But there are lessons in there, I'm certain.