Swingin' High and Movin' On

There’s something very special about being able to spend extra time with your grandparents. My parents were retired by the time my youngest son was entering his teen years. He was too young drive, but young enough to stay alone, which meant his days would have been spent locked up at home playing video games, watching television, and eating junk all day. Instead, my parents invited him to their home in Albany Georgia and provided so many learning opportunities, lessons of patience for all, and invaluable memories that will never be forgotten. 

His grandmother had a membership at the YMCA; she would take Zach to the pool with her several 

times a week and would in the end, teach him to both swim and dive. He would learn to swim so well, and with such endurance, that at the end of that summer he was able to swim-lap two miles without stopping.

They would find a blue hole in Wacissa, Florida that held a plank/stand and a rope. It would be

awhile before Zach was brave enough to swing and jump, but after several visits of packing picnic items and watching others swing and jump – he would finally do it and never looked back.

One of those summers his granddaddy bought a canoe and he and Zach would find every lake, blue hole and river to row for miles around, in both Georgia and Florida. They took many trips trying to build their endurance and excel their rowing abilities. One of the last trips they made, they rowed Lake Chehaw up to Muckalee Creek and back again for a total of nine miles.

There was a piano in their home, and his grandmother would teach him enough that he could master

the electric piano they bought him as his going away gift at the end of that summer. 

His granddaddy also began teaching him about stocks and bonds during those early teen summer stays. They helped him buy stock in his name, and for years they would contribute to that stock for every A -grade he made in school. By the time he was 18 years old, he was contributing himself, reading his quarterly statements on his own, and watching his funds grow.

My mother often tells a story involving my grandfather, Zach’s great grandfather, who was still living at the time. When Zach was about three years old he was walking from the back of my parents’ house to the front, and as he rounded the corner of the house my grandfather said to my mother “Have you ever noticed how Zach walks?” And my mother replied “Do you mean how he walks with such authority?” And he replied back, “Well, I was just getting ready to say, he either walks like he owns this place, or he’s fixing to buy it.”

Zach will be 20 years old this week, and he still walks just like that; with authority and ease, and like he just bought the joint and closed the deal of a lifetime. I imagine he always will.