The Brookston Family Blog
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My cousin Mike is the oldest son of my Mom’s brother, my Uncle Jim. I saw them when I was a teen, but after high school I wasn’t around much and so missed a lot of his growing up. A little over ten years ago, before Sarah and I married but were still living together, he paid us a visit while following the Dead. It was during his college years and one summer he came and stayed with us in Santa Clara when the Grateful Dead were playing at the Shoreline, in nearby Mountain View. It was great seeming him again and we kept in touch after that point. When he moved to Denver for graduate school, I saw him almost every year since the Great American Beer Festival is held there. He and his girlfriend Jen recently moved to Philadelphia where he was doing international acccounting for Campbell’s Soup. But later this month he’ll be moving back to Denver to take a job with Liberty Global.

I didn’t think I had a paternal bone in my body, but here I am reading to Mike in March of 1977, when I was a senior in high school.

Mike’s school photo from 1979.

New Year’s Eve the year Mike turned 21 on a visit with us in California. So he’s 20 in this photo. Note to Bernie, his Mom: Please note his cup is empty and has no alcoholic beverages in it.

In front of Paul & Eddie’s, a favorite haunt that’s owned by a friend of ours, the next day when Mike turned 21.

Mike and his fiancee Jen in 2004 at GABF in Denver.

Harry was my Mom’s father and I called him Pop Pop for reasons passing understanding. He and my grandmother divorced long before I was born and as a result of my grandmother’s jealousy and manipulation we were never very close, a fact I always felt bad about. Pop Pop passed away a few years ago. He owned a garage and worked as an auto mechanic most of my life but I understand when he was younger he worked in the textile factories that were once ubiquitous in the area where I grew up, Reading, Pennsylvania. He was raised on a farm, and his family had been Mennonite farmers since before the War, the Revolutionary one. Besides working, his only hobby I knew of was the Masons, where he was always very active. When I was in junior high, he was even a Grand Poobah, or whatever it is you get to be as a Mason. When I was a kid, he asked me to join the youth group but I was never one to join things (I’m still not much of a joiner) and I declined. It’s a decision I’ve regretted ever since. I think it may have been the one thing that might have brought us closer. But between that, my manipulative grandmother and my family’s predisposition for a lack of emotional display; these things kept us forever strangers. I never heard him raise his voice, except at work when he swore like a sailor at the cars he worked on. He was always quiet and kept to himself. He joined in conversations with his sisters and brothers but rarely spoke deeply with the kids of my generation. At least that was my perspective on him. I wish I had known him better but I miss him all the same.

My grandfather and me in 1965, sitting in my favorite rocking chair in the house I grew up in from the time I was five.

At my grandfather’s house for Christmas in 1969. That’s my Mom with the big hair sitting in the middle.

Pop Pop and my Mom in 1980, about a year before she passed away.

Porter also returned to his tree-climbing pursuits at the park on Saturday.

Up, up and away.

Trying to stay well-balanced.

Peacock Gap Park was the first place Alice went on a swing when she was only a few months old late last summer. And she seemed thrilled to be once again back there and on the swings.

Swinging with Sarah.

“Weeeeeeeeee!”

Alice swings back up to Mommy.

“Hey, there’s Mommy!”

Sarah leans in for a kiss.

“Boy, I’d forgotten how much fun this is.“

Porter spent most of the time at the park yesterday working the digger. He wheeled around 360 degrees lifting dirt and building a pile of it in the middle.

Porter works the digger.

And works it and works it.

Trying to lift more dirt.

Porter on the digger from above on the deck of the pirate ship.

Yesterday during a break in the rain when, for a few hours, the sky was blue with fluffy white clouds we went to a rain-soaked Peacock Gap Park to let the kids continue to stretch their legs. After so much time lately inside we wanted to keep them outside as long as possible to cure their cabin fever.

Alice climbed the stairs to the top deck of the pirate ship.

While Porter went for a solo ride on the four-way see-saw.

Then Alice crawled around the jungle gym and though one of the tunnels.

Porter rides the sidecar as a little heartbreaker at the park takes him for a drive on the motorcycle.

A close-up of Alice at the park.

After lunch yesterday we went for a walk along the Loch Lomond Marina on the water in San Rafael. Porter and Sarah decided on a race and Alice tried to run too, but it was more like the tortoise and the hare.

Porter and Sarah race ahead as Alice struggles in vain to keep up.

Eventually she realized the futility of it all and gave up the chase.

I’m decreeing that 2006 will be the “Year of the Birthday” and I’ll be posting birthday wishes and pictures for virtually every person I know or used to know. I’m adding this birthday cake icon as an upper level category this year.
If I know your age, I’ll be listing here using number candles. For example, I’ll be this year. If I don’t know your age, I’ll use this candle: . If you see that and you know how old the person is, by all means let me know. Also, for some ages I’m going to just guess. Let me know if I got it wrong. For example, Karen will be 53 this year, right?

If you haven’t sent me your birthday along with the birthday of your entire family, now would be a good time to send them to me so I don’t miss your birthday. I’m planning on going through all my old photographs and finding just the right photo or photos to post. And I have a lot of old photos. Boxes and boxes, in fact. I’ve got some beauties. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Happy New Year from our home to yours.

Looking forward to a great 2006.

Looking forward to getting bigger so I can get into more trouble.

Let’s party!

Let’s eat, drink and be merry!

Things are looking up!