D2 TRAVELS TO PENNSYLVANIA FOR A LOOK SEE

Summer arrives and with it brings our first visitor, my second son D2. He was now a full fledged teenager, tall, scrawny, 18 years old and with an abundance of energy. He is ready for action and full of dreams of adventure. Ange loved the idea of a big brother to play with. Ron loved the idea of a big brother to tease and make crazy. D2 was on his best behaviour and displayed extreme patience with the girls. He allowed them leeway to get away with crap that his sister, at home D3, would never even have attempted to pull. What the girls found extremely amusing D2 did not.

During his stay we tried to cram in as much of his dream as possible while I continued to work long hours and long weeks. In this blog I am going to recount some of the events and sights surrounding this epic visit. During this period in our lives, D2’s older brother,D1, was already gainfully employed with a full time job and visions of a new motorbike, so could not make it south to see us. My oldest daughter D1 was also occupied for the summer, I believe, with a summer camp that she had been planning throughout the school year. If it appears we lack photos of this part of our trip it can be attributed to me and my always present video camera, which, for years replaced our still camera on our outings.

D2 arrives and the first kid he meets is Rosco. Immediately, he developed an all consuming dislike of this little guy. Rosco jumped right into the teasing of D2 along with Ron. He developed a song for D2 which he sang over and over each time they crossed paths. It went like this “Dean, Dean bo bean, banana, banana bo bean, Deeeeaaannn”. D2 had no patience for ol’ Rosco and early one morning at breakfast said “doesn’t this kid ever shut up? Can’t you send him home?” To which Rosco replied “No D2, you are a menace! you go home, I already am at home!”. But having now matured to a full 18 years, D2 tried his best to ignore this constant thorn in his side. Ron was far worse in her unrelenting teasing and practical jokes.

We tried to show D2 around every chance we had, and soon had the occasion, one Saturday, to attend a Philadelphia Phillies baseball game. For D2, this was the answer to one of his dreams. We chose a very warm day and sat back in the stands soaking up the atmosphere along with a few cokes, dogs and peanuts. It was magic for me to have him with us. He was very easy to be with and had a great sense of adventure. After the ballgame we visited the Spectrum, home of the Flyers, or The Broadstreet Bullies, also home of Sylvester Stallone of Rocky fame. We stopped at my favorite eatery in South Philly and fed D2 one of the original Philadelphia ChesseSteaks. He was about 18 at this point and could he eat. You think?

As I mentioned earlier, Ron had decided that she would try to make her big brother, crazy, on this trip. She constantly had one form of prank or another going. She enlisted the aid of any of her friends that came to visit during D2’s stay. Ron was merciless. One of her (in her mind) greatest pranks was to fill D2’s swimsuit pockets full of popcorn prior to inviting him for a game in the pool. Well he donned his trunks, jumped in and immediately his pockets floated to the surface like little water wings. Ron and her buddy hooted hilariously until D2 finally figured out what they were laughing about. He then had to clean about two cupfuls of soggy popcorn out of his swimsuit pockets. He was not amused and gave Ron a few good “dunkings”. This, until her screams brought out ol’ Bubbaloo to admonish poor D2 for picking on the girls. Geezus can’t a man ever get a break around here?

As I mentioned earlier, we tried to show D2 some of the sights in and around Philadelphia. It was a famous point of US history with the Liberty Bell on display here and where the Declaration of Independence was signed. D2 feigned interest and stayed positive, unlike his little sister Ron, who by this time in her life, made no pretence of enjoying our outings. One thousand family tours had apparently done it for her. We walked around Philadelphia and as always sampled the culinary delights of the city. All too soon D2 had to head back home and get ready for the upcoming school year. We thoroughly enjoyed his stay and missed him greatly once he was gone. D2 was always ready to visit us whenever and wherever we went. He was (and is) a dreamer much like his dad and loved adventure, Although, I’m not so sure of his love of the walking tours, with me narrating, although he said he did.