Ice Cream and Birthdays

Stories of times with one of the grandchildren

Photo by Cade Proulx on Unsplash

You Had to Be There — The Prompt: Write a story about a moment that doesn’t sound impressive but was unforgettable to the people involved.

Some moments matter more than they seem from the outside. This challenge is about capturing that difference.

Write a story centered on an experience that might sound ordinary to anyone else but stayed with the people who lived it.

Let the meaning come through in the details. Focus on the texture of the moment rather than trying to make it appear larger than it is.

Vocal Media

Over the years some of the best times I have had in my life are when young “Kids say the darndest things.” That was a popular television show when I was growing up with Art Linkletter, way back in the 50s. Then later Bill Cosby in the late 90s and early 2000s and still later to Tiffany Haddish, which I haven’t seen into 2020s.

George and I get so much out of our times remembering those remarks from our grandchildren and now great grandchildren. We know when we share them that no one gets the same thing that we do, but it is still fun to recollect.

George has even said, “You had to have been there!”

With certainty, I would not remember even one-third of all of the cutest sayings if we were to write a book, and together we may remember a bit more. It could be a best seller, we think, but it may be another — You had to be there kind of situation.

Some of the stories, of course have the most meaning to family. They know how their grandpa/father/great grandpa can be when teasing, so they have all been there and would rather hear the stories about what grandpa did or said to Samuel, or someone else.

Recently George gave me a drop of ice cream in a large bowl and we laughed. I am not eating ice cream, so a drop didn’t matter. He just filled up the bowl and ate it himself. What was funny about the incident is what happened not so long ago.

Our daughter asked Samuel to get grandpa some ice cream. He came back with one small drop in a bowl. It was hilarious as when he was small and did that to this grandson, he looked in the bowl and said, “Oh my God!”

Then grandpa took the bowl back and did the same thing all over again and Samuel’s “Oh my God!!” got louder! And his eyes got even larger.

To us the reminder was great fun. Something to laugh about and that was all it took to add more enjoyment to our evening. That grandson is a teenager now. It makes it even funnier to picture the grandson at this age as that young guy.

Grandpa George explaining to Samuel about how no one gets birthday presents then they turn 5.

Our grandson was telling grandpa what he wanted for his birthday when he turned five that year. George told him that when you turn five, you don’t get anything for your birthday.

The grandson then started talking about what he was getting for Christmas that year and Grandpa again said that when you are five you don’t get anything for Christmas, Easter, from the Tooth fairy, or for anything else when you are five.

So, Samuel started to talk about what he was going to get when he turned six. I guess he told grandpa. We laughed, and I told George that was enough and that was mean. Grandson appeared okay, and I think he had Grandpa figured out, but he wasn’t quite sure as when we laughed, he was pretty serious.

That is when I told him that he will be getting things for his birthday and that he should give us a list of things that we could pick from to get him for his birthday. And I told his grandpa that he was going to pay big for this birthday!

We still laugh about this whenever this grandson has a birthday, and grandpa is still paying.

Author’s Note: I realize this is published in the fiction community. I was just reminded of this story recently, so thought I might share it and it seemed to fit the You had to be there challenge. The fiction is the names were changed.

Originally published at https://vocal.media for the You Had to Be There challenge.