21 Days till 30- 1986

Jimmy graduated this year. I remember it being a big deal because he was not only the first child in our family, but also the first grandchild in my mom's family. Grandma and Grandpa came up for the graduation and so did Grandfather Beck. That was the trip that he asked me in the Red Lobster parking lot to not call him Grandpa, but that I was old enough I should call him Grandfather. I also discovered it sucks sometimes to be old because he was allergic to shellfish and strawberries... I equated the two, age and allergies, of course.
I was so proud of my big brother. I had wanted to follow him everywhere, especially around on his bike route when we were younger. I remember him trying to convince mom that I would be okay, but in the end she won out and I wasn't allowed to go. He often took advantage of my admiration, but I would have done the same thing if the roles were reversed. He could be sitting in the living room watching TV and I could be in another room and he would ask me to get him something out of the refrigerator and I would do it quickly with no complaints. Yeh, he trained me well! As I got older we talked a lot. Sometimes late into the night about life, books, religion and later politics. These were the good times when we thought we believed the same things so there was no need on either of our parts to prove to the other that we were right. We just had really deep, good conversations. The sharing is what I remember and cherish. I got to share the moment of his graduation with him as we all sat waiting for the principal to call his name and hand him his diploma. I shared in the pride that the whole family felt in his accomplishment and I knew that one day I would be up there accepting my diploma and remembering his day. He was the first and I was to be the last. We were the book ends in the chapters of the Beck children's childhoods. This was his last day as a child and his first as a grownup. He was about to embark on the first chapters of adulthood...