Saturday, July 16th, 2015-in which there are two temper tantrums, a magician, and a night out.

Today Pete said "When pop sparkles, sometimes it sparkles in your nose, and it tickles".  Pete got up to watch cartoons...he got me up to turn them on.  Then I got a pillow and a blanket and lay down beside him and slept while he watched.  We finished up the Corn Chex this morning and now we're down to "7 Sprouted Grains" Banana Crisp, which neither of us likes too much (maybe Pete will eat less of it).  I finally started cooking lunch (steak for me, bacon for Peter at his insistence) at 2:30pm, and gave Pete a quick bath while it was cooking.  He wanted 2 eggs and had a temper tantrum because he said he didn't want to help with lunch so I put the bacon in the pan and then he decided he wanted to watch "Big John and Little John", so he did, but then "the Shazam-Isis Hour" was over and he wanted to watch that, too.  Vicky called and wanted Pete to come over to play but we hadn't time.  We dressed after lunch, called a cab (Bobbie, Paul's niece drove us) and went to the magic show.  Dennis Loomis was the magician.  He did rope tricks, scarf tricks, made pigeons and rabbits appear (yes, he pulled one out of a hat), made a tiny horse disappear...then he made a "gorilla" (a man in a gorilla suit) appear and it got out of the cage and frightened Pete.  He tore a newspaper into shreds-and then unfolded it, whole again.  He put his assistant into a cabinet, stuck 16 swords through the cabinet, and the lady emerged unscathed.  Then he swaed (well, "cut" with steel blades) a man in half, allowed his assistants to put him into a cabinet, which was then stuck through with 3 hollow steel blades, and a light shown through the openings, all empty, and then he reappeared all in one piece.  Then he and his assistant escaped from the stocks, appeared in stocks aain, and escaped again.  John (Betty's magician grandson) would have loved it...oh, and he made a lady float in the air.  I'd read a lot about all the tricks but never actually seen them performed before.  We came straight home (Petey had another temper tantrum because he wanted to stop at Paul's and I just told him, "You can cry all you want but you're not going to get your own way so it's not doing you any good!"), I changed clothes and fed us, and Sylvia was knocking at the door.  We took Pete to stay with Sharon and Davey, and Sylvia and I went to the Obon Odori dances at the Buddhist Church.  We went into the Temple and saw the flower arrangements too.  Two brothers, 3 and 4 years old, did one of the dances.  Then we went to the Dairy Queen and I had a hot fudge sundae (I won't want one again for a while) and a root beer.  Then to Moore's Alley (the Lounge of the old Moore's Hotel located in Downtown Ontario, the structure burned to the ground many years ago-PL) for 2 Vodka Collins and some music (saw Carol Ross).  Then, at 11:00pm , back to Sylvia's to get Petey (Dave had to go on a call to Rusty's Pancake House with all 3 children-they played in back in what was "Peter Pan's Playground".  Pete was tucked up on the couch but said, "Mommy, I was worried about you"-that's supposed to be MY line!  Then to bed.

Some additional thought and context:  It's difficult for me to read that I wasn't always the most well behaved child.  I hold no illusions, mind you, Mom told me my nick name used to be "Bertram Bossy Boots the Third" so that might have been an indication.  Still though, the more I learn about how she was feeling and what she was going through (especially in passages regarding my father), the more disappointed I am in my 4 and a half year old self for adding to her stress.  I guess it's part of every kid's journey, though and, in my own defense, I wasn't feeling great a lot of the time either.  

There's also a wee bit of foreshadowing here.  I don't really recall Rusty's Pancake house ever having had a "play area" of any sort, but it's interesting that the space she references in this entry has a Peter Pan theme, as that was also the theme of my wedding to my Amazing Wife Wendi.

Aside from all of those aspects, it's been interesting to revisit (in memory) many of the landmarks that I grew up with-some of which I haven't thought about in a long, long time.  Dairy Queen being downtown, and the Moore Building-once the tallest building in town with a semi vibrant nightlife then to abandon husk, then burning hulk, now a small city park.  Even in a rural setting where some might argue time stands still, life goes on and things do change...eventually.-PL