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..hard to recall exactly when the idea coalesced in his huge, shaggy (the April lice infestation inspired buzz cut is growing out now) melon...but thinking about it - ever since he was a wee tot, G made me stop by the tropical fish dept. in Wally World every time we were in there.
This spring they did the Tar-jay inspired remodeling at the Shelby Co. Wally World, and the tropical fish display got quite an upgrade..
In any case, last May or so - we both found the idea of actually GETTING a fish tank starting to gel in our respecitive evil genius brains (G having more of both qualities, but he had to get them from SOMEone, right??)
The funding was the key - sure, I could have footed the bill as usual, but this time I somehow knew the time had come to have G (for the most part) finance his own project, sense of ownership all all - 7 and a half a perfect age to drive that nail home..
The Smoothies were the answer...
A week before he made up the flyers..."GEORGE WILSON HAS BIG SMOOTHIES!!!!!" was the catch line, he came up with that himself, simple, to the point, brilliant, I had to concede.
We ran off copies and on Wednesday, distributed about 30 of them around the neighborhood, drumming up buzz....invaluable in the "restaurant" business...
Not only did he learn about advertising this summer, he learned about overhead. I had little man use some of his stash of BD card Presidential Portraits to buy the ice cream and milk - about $5...I contributed the fruit, and the support staff, but G was definitely the front man.
The sale was a HUGE success! $31 gross, $26 net, sold out in 2 hours!! The neighbors are still talking about them - not only a great way to sneak fresh fruit into kids, but a perfect way to groom my little free market tycoon!
So flush with his sale proceeds, plus $10 sent by Grandma in the mail from DC - last Wednesday we drove over to Wally World in the uncharacteristically COOL, cloudy early summer weather (hmmm, that's strange, I don't REMEMBER moving to Seattle...)
- after a quick drive by visit from my high school pal Richie and his wife and kids, who FINALLY stopped by to see the place after 10 years of driving past here to vist his sister in Nashville...G gave them an interesting tour around the place...it always tickles me to see which parts of and things in the house he considers significant enought to point out to guests, the ant farm getting the starring role these days...)it kinda creeped me out that his 16 year old Lauren was texting NON-STOP the entire hour they were at our place...I mean I know my house is not exactly engrossing to a teenage mind...but holy hell..
at WalMart we said hi to our trusty Greeter and picking up a cart, we happened to run into our pastor - we told him what we were there for, and he offered us a second hand 20 gallon tank out of his garage!
I would have taken him up on it, but I was determined to let G make all the decisions he could, it was his money after all - so we went over the pros and cons. In retrospect, I was glad he decided to go with the 14 gallon tank starter kit - not only did it fit perfectly in the place we picked out for it (more on that later) but if came pre-packed with all the correctly fitted hood, filter, pump, light, heater, etc, etc, etc...perfect for a slightly to significantly technically challenged fish tank engineering consulted like the one poor George is saddled with!
8-O
He also picked out a couple of bags of blue and black gravel, a sack of plastic seaweed, and a (frankly) hideous looking kinda sorta ceramic half log with ridiculous looking flowers sprouting from it, improbably, in improbable directions...initial price tag $86.77 - quite the investment for a not quite second grader!
(MUCH better spent than on some video game cartridges if you ask dear old dad, esp considering dear old dad has banned the PS2, Gameboy, Nintendo, X-box, and other mind numbing waste of time video gaming from the manse..!!)
He made my heart swell watching him try to navigate the huge, heavy, laden down cart out to the parking lot, telling every passerby..."Hey, I just bought a fish tank!"
That first night we just brought it home, unpacked it from the trunk, and dragged it up the stairs, dumping everything on the floor of his office/science lab..well, we DID rinse of the gravel in the spaghetti strainer and both of us enjoyed that curiously satisfying pleasure of scrunching the stuff around in our fingers.
It took a couple of days to get back to making Luca Brasi's bed...On Saturday, we WERE going to go to the track - not having been in over a year, but the drizzly grey weather inspired us to pursuits other than polytrack people watching...
Instead we headed over to the Sunny Side, where it was also Seattle like..for some o' them good contraband Hoosier fireworks - G pestering me all week to "blow something up" (he is SUCH the boy) and the KY glorified sparkler variety of fireworks NOT being well suited to destructive pursuits.
So armed with a bagful of roman candles, bottle rockets, screaming rockets and firecrackers - we drove back to Shelby and set to work on the tank..first up to the attic to drag down an old, secondhand when G's mom had brought home a pair years ago to use as bedside, table...we put it next to George's bed - to give him prime bedtime night viewing of the soothing aquatic world we were about to create. (A sneaky way to provide him with a nightlight for years to come, one which future cruel and heartless teen friends would never suspect the TRUE purpose of..
The starter kit aquarium was thankfully very user friendly, and in no time the filter, bubble curtain and heater were installed in good working order. G dumped the gravel in the bottom and set to work dragging jugs of water out of the bathtub faucet into his room to pour in while I perused the teeny-tiny print on the back of the tiny-teenie bottles of water chemicals included in the set...sheesh - don't they realize presbyopic Dad's consitute a good 32% of their target market?? hmmphf!
It was during this portion of the process which occurred the most poigant and touching event of many months...
Years ago, when G was still respiring through his belly button, I had run across, and printed out and framed and nailed up to the wall in his room, 4 feet off the floor...this quote -
"Aim at the Sun, and you may not reach it, but your arrow will fly far higher then if you aimed at an object on a level with yourself." - Joel Hawes
I knew one day he may be inspired by this, and was gratified to be present for Stage One. As he was tirelessly tramping back and forth, dripping water all over his hardwood floor, and I was trying to make some order out of the tangle of electrical cords suddenly sprouting from the previously unused 110V outlet behind his bed, I noticed suddenly the room had grown still, his footsteps had ceased...
I turned and saw him gazing intently, glasses slipped halfway down his nose, at the framed words of Mr. Hawes. "Can you read that G?" I queried as casually as I could manage, heart in my throat...
He read it off, haltingly - with a littled help with the "aimed" - which he pronounced "ammed"
When he finished, I was bursting with pride, and I asked him then if he knew what that meant? "No," he replied, unabashed...
"That's okay," I told him softly, "You have lots of time to think about it." Ahh, the simple pleasure of watching something grow, slowly...never sweeter than when the something is an idea you hold dear, and are trying to plant into the psyche of your son.
see next entry..
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