Too many memories to keep up with now... But this old picture found me again.
Too many pictures
In the early years of our marriage while our babies were still little......This little man, our youngest child, when he was just small, loved his father's car very much. It was a classic Ultramarine Blue MG. He would sit in it and dream.
[This is the child who came into the world from labor's onset in record time for me of 1 hour and 45 minutes without prepping or drugs. Shoot-- he was almost born in the back of a taxi, this surprise baby of the family & number 3 ]
One day Wade left the car parked on an incline a little further from the house. Robbie got in it, managed to release the brake, and away he went. He did the best he could to steer the car and not hit the house. It was a slight grade, so it was a slow roll but still, his foot couldn't reach the brake. He took out the gray ionic colonial style front pillar holding up the side of the carport. He wasn't hurt and amazingly, neither was the car.
Robbie was a very active child, not meaning to be wild.
He was just very bright and inquisitive. He was always trying to keep up with his older brother and sister and their friends.
Another time during lunch, when I went into the adjoining laundry room to transfer the washed clothes to the dryer, he climbed out of his wooden high chair that was pushed up to the table and climbed onto the table. He grabbed the chandelier and attempted to swing from it. Instead, it came crashing down almost on his head, and again without getting hurt. But the chandelier got dented and several bulbs broke.
He was still breastfeeding at age 3 when one morning I had to get up early and get some milk and juice we were out of. I left Robbie sleeping in our bed with his daddy. When I got back, he was gone. We had put 3 extra locks on our door because he thought he was a big boy that could come and go by his own whims. When he woke up and saw I was gone, he undid the locks and went looking for me. In a panic, I called the police and social services. Fortunately, a nice lady in the neighborhood saw him walking and picked him up. They already had him in custody when I called. It led to a social services investigation of which we were cleared.
Next? Well, it wasn't long after that he was running down the hall into the living room and tripped. He hit his cheekbone on a rounded corner of the wooden coffee table, causing a gash requiring stitches at the emergency room.
Not long after that, he's trying to tag along and follow his older siblings playing in the creek in our back yard. At that time, there was very little water flowing but some of the rocks were slippery and he slipped on one, falling backwards and hitting the back of his head, requiring another trip to the emergency room and a few more stitches. They started giving me dirty looks. But there were no grounds whatsoever to charge for child abuse.
And last of all, just a few months later, heavy rainfall filled that creek that was usually dry. There was a little island that divided the creek in the back part of our yard and our oldest son had built bridges to it. My kids and I had also built together a very cool fort out of wooden shipping pallets. While we were outside doing yard work and hanging laundry on the clothesline, my oldest, David, decides to go to "Frog Island", as we called it. The water had almost breached the creek's banks and was over my youngest son's head. Wade and I were both out there with him and we both knew what he was about to do....with our keen parental premonitions....and before we could stop him, he tried jumping over the creek and instead fell short and under the water he went, completely submerged and a swift current carrying him away. My quick whitted husband ran on the land around a curving part, jumping in just in time ahead of him as the current carried Robbie where Wade could intercep him and whisk him out of the water. He's one lucky boy his dad was there to save him.
Parenting was such fun as well as frustrating. I collected many years of fearfulness. But we survived it and here we are.
Now Robbie is a grown man of 35 years with 3 children of his own.
And we're still here on the planet. We will still come to his rescue when needed and help him with the raising of our grandchildren. It is very hard being a parent these days--
especially if you are a single dad as our Robbie now is. I will always help all my children and grandchildren, too-- no matter how old they are. They are my children and I don't mind one bit.
His own list of kid stunts and messiness is by far, much shorter, but just as serious to experience--
Legend was hospitalized for ingesting THC laden gummies that he managed to get his little hands on while visiting at a friend's for a football game night with the guys....
That one was shear hell for us too.
RJ-- so far so good, he's a tall all-star in basketball athletics
Rose-- also very good in basketball, but unfortunately, has already had an injury- dislocated shoulder. She's back to playing but is not as proficient as she formerly was. This summer while we had a family venture to the beach, Rose and a friend had been on some shallow Shoals when the tides changed and they tried to get back in and instead the strong riptide started sweeping them out and they couldn't swim. They were starting to drown. Robbie saved both their lives because he was also out there with them and was able to get to them in time. He is the unknown hero wearing an invisible medal with a heart of gold and I am very proud of him.
Short story by Clara Mae Gregory
Read 4 times
Written on 2026-09-08 at 00:48
Save as a bookmark (requires login) Write a comment (requires login) Send as email (requires login) Print text
