…and it didn’t even last 20 minutes.
The place is huge, and they have displays broken down by early flight-WW1, WW2, Korean-Vietnam, a missile display, experimental planes, space stuff, etc - dozens of aircraft in each room, a movie theater, flight simulators you can ride, and even more stuff outside.
They came in the entrance, and there’s a little sort of gauntlet, so to speak, of some photos of planes, some uniforms, that kind of stuff, just to give you a taste of what’s to come. It takes 30 seconds to wheel through it. It’s just an entryway that opens onto the first big hangar filled with stuff.
We didn't make it through that first entryway before Dad said, “I believe I’ve seen enough, let’s go home!”
We didn’t even stop in the entryway to look at anything, we were just rolling through, and that was that - 20 minutes? We didn’t make it 20 seconds!
Lee was having none of that, so we wheeled through a little bit, and the whole time, Dad was on repeat:
“You cold, Jean? You want my blanket?” - to my mom.
<10 seconds>
“What time is it? We got to get back before four o’clock.”
<10 seconds>
“I didn’t think we’d ever get here.”
<10 seconds>
“You cold, Jean?”
Over and over again, with hardly a pause. Lee would try and break the cycle by pointing out some aircraft or another, and Dad would say, “Yeah, that sure is somethin’…You want my blanket, Jean? Are you cold?”
Mom has a hard time dealing with that, there’s a part of her that thinks he should just be able to stop, or if she’s persistent enough with her answers, he’ll suddenly snap out of it, so she was getting angrier and angrier with her responses as we went along.
After about 15 minutes, we left, and Dad was agreeable to having lunch together, so we went to a nearby place.
That was more of the same. We got to a table, they brought menus, and then it started:
“Do you think they have biscuits and gravy?”
“Yeah, Dad, it’s right there.”
“That’s what I’ll have, then. What’re you havin’, Jean?”
“I missed my bacon this morning, so I’m havin’ a good ol’ BLT.”
“A BLT…that’s what I’m havin’.”
“No, you’re havin’ biscuits and gravy!”
“I am?”
<10 seconds>
“Do they have biscuits and gravy here?”
…that went on nonstop for another 20 minutes, and at one point, my mom got so frustrated, she smacked him on his arm and reminded him sharply for the 30th time he was having biscuits and gravy, and he looked so wounded and got big tears in his eyes.
At that point, we hadn’t been waited on, so we just got up and left (they were short-staffed), because he started in on asking over and over what time it was and he had to get back to the care home before 4PM.
That’s where we said our goodbyes. Lee looked so devastated. We got them both in their car (a Buick, naturally), and he gave me a hug and thanked me for coming, and he said, “I just wanted Pap (Dad) to have a good day.“ - he looked so sad about the whole thing.
So that’s why I ate lunch on my own, which I’ll get posted up later, nothing special.
My plans for the rest of the day are to stop at a little mom-and-pop grocery near where I am now. I’m not in this area much, so I don’t want to miss that.
Sorry Lee had to go through that "leaning experience," but all of us with parents that old have to go through that.
CD
you not, after my family left and I stopped and got lunch for myself, I sat down in the booth, and two minutes later, two older gents sat in the booth next to me, the waitress came over, and what did the one fellow say?
