Does History Repeat Itself?

When Isaak is an old man, I picture him gathering his great grandchildren around him and telling them the story of when he came home from his mission in Tucson, AZ,  and stopping in to visit his grandparents.

“We had gotten up at 5:30 to go to the temple as a family. When I got home, I borrowed my dad’s car, to drive around and visit places I hadn’t seen for two years. I decided to stop in and say hello to Grandma and Grandpa. It was like 8:30 in the morning. The house was quiet so I walked upstairs and found Grandpa in front of his computer clad only in his garmies. Now that is a rather shocking sight. We visited as if we were both in suits and ties. Soon Grandma whizzed by attired in her sports bra and yoga pants.  ‘ISAAK!  Just a minute while I get dressed’, she muttered as she pulled on her blouse.  She didn’t comb her hair so it was poking out in every direction. I don’t know why it was so wild. I hugged her and she welcomed me home. We visited for awhile as if these two ancients didn’t look like they came straight out of a horror movie. And that was my first intimate reunion with Grandma and Grandpa Hugh after my mission all those years ago.”

No pictures.

Use your imagination.

DeRay was waiting for Ed

to get home from his trike ride before showering.

I had been on a trike ride

and finished my yoga stretches.

Part of my ritual

is lying on the bed,

rolling my ankles in one direction

then the other

while massaging my head.

Thus the wild hair.

I usually do my stretches in my garments,

but it was laundry day

and I wanted to wash all the whites.

Thus the rare sports bra.

Ed was sitting out on the porch when Isaak left.

“I love you, Isaak,” he said

as he vanished out of sight.

GRANDPA'S DRAWERS AND PANTS

In the days when men used to wear drawers over their LDS garments, Grandpa John J. Esplin found himself in a most embarrassing predicament.  It was his custom when the weather was warm to take off his drawers while he was working in the fields and occasionally, when it was really hot, to take off his pants too.

One particularly sultry day, Grandpa had shed both drawers and pants as he worked at plowing in the Cove.  He had completed several circuits of the field and was at the farthest from his drawers and pants when, to his consternation, Mark and Sally Chamberlain drove into the field immediately adjoining the spot where Grandpa had left his clothes.  He halted his team and waited, hoping that their visit would be a short one.  But it wasn't

Sally ensconced herself on the wagon seat commanding a view of the whole surrounding countryside and took up her mending.  What was Grandpa to do?  All he could do was retire to the grove of trees adjoining the spot at which he had stopped, and wait a long, long wait.  Not until sunset was he able to recover his drawers and pants and return home.--by Ross Esplin, a grandson (to truly appreciate this account, you have to know how hard it was for Grandpa to wait.  He wasn't one to sit around doing nothing.)