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Benicia is . . .
Here you will find articles written by Benicians sharing their vision of Benicia with you.
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Subject: Benicia
Title: A Day In Benicia
I met Donna Welch in May, 1993 while she was performing in the Benicia Old Town Theatre Group's production of A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM. I had just finished performing in SOUTH PACIFIC at the Solano College Theatre and a mutual friend introduced us and we got married. Pretty much like that! Donna has two daughters, one of whom lives in Benicia. She has two children, Wyatt and Morgan, for whom, by chance, I get to be Grandfather. Wyatt is now 6 and Morgan is now 4, but, I've been around since they were born. To the grandkids, I'm known as Pa!
One recent morning, I went to pick up Wyatt and Morgan to take them to the Library for Storytime. This morning, Morgan was completely sure she didn't want to go to the Library although, she often joined us. She wanted to stay home with Mom which was fine -- she gets to choose!
Wyatt had gotten up early that morning and decided he wanted to catch a spider in his spider box. Audrey heard the back door open and off he went, into the backyard wearing pajamas with socks and slippers, because it was cold. He caught a spider of some kind. It was a pretty one with a little red hourglass on it's back! OK, I'm just kidding. It looked as if it was a Daddy Longlegs spider and, as such, he named it "Longlegs".
So, he put Longlegs in the spider box with some grass so the spider would have a place to hide. The grass Wyatt placed in the box apparently had a pincher bug hiding within, which later disappeared. Wyatt said the spider ate the pincher bug, but, I think it crawled out through the cracks in the lid into the house; but, Wyatt was so pleased with his hunting he decided he wanted to take the box to school for sharing.
Later, on the way to the Library, I inquired, "So, are you excited about taking your spider to 'Show and Tell'?" Wyatt said, "What's Show and Tell?" I said, "Where you show your spider to the other students and tell them all about it!" Then I said, "What do you call it?" And, he said, "It's called 'Sharing' Pa!" (like, duh!). I said, "Oh!"
So, he wanted a book on the planet Mercury and a book about spiders. We returned the books we had previously checked out with Wyatt's Library Card that he obtained when he was four years old. We proceeded to the "Planet" section and found books on the solar system, Mercury, and volcanoes. He was fascinated with volcanoes. In Hawaii, they have two kinds of lava: Ah-ah which is thick lava and Oh-pah-ee-oo-ee-oo, which is thin lava. Wyatt LOVED the word Oh-pah-ee-oo-ee-oo! He said, "Daddy will laugh at that word!"
So, we read that book, going back to the page with the word Oh-pah-ee-oo-ee-oo many times, and then read about Mercury and then he said, "Can we be done reading books now?" I said, "Sure! What do you want to do?" He said, "I want to get a book on spiders". So, we got a book on spiders and army ants and fleas and read all 3 of them and, then, checked them out. It was time to go meet Mom and Morgan for lunch.
We left the library after pitching a penny in the fountain and making a wish and met Mom and Morgan at one of our favorite lunch places, "Double Rainbow", where we had the usual turkey with cranberry and a scoop of cherry ice cream. Many kids of all ages tend to get into ruts about ordering the same thing over and over. Well, if you like it, why not? Although, sometimes it's fun to experiment. We try to avoid the national chain stores and restaurants and typically patronize locally owned and operated businesses in Benicia because we know it's better for Benicia if we do so.
Before eating, Mom told Wyatt that he needed to put some anti-bacterial stuff on his hands. She took out a bottle of disinfectant stuff and proceeded to squirt a little on Wyatt's hands. I guess he was distracted or something because he didn't stick his hand out, rather, he opened his MOUTH for her to squirt it into his mouth thinking it was some kind of treat or something. Mom said, "yeeeeuuuu" and Wyatt cracked up when he realized what he was doing.
Wyatt ate his sandwich, half of Morgan's cheese sandwich, half of my sandwich, half of Mom's salad, and, then ate his ice cream, some of Morgan's, and a bunch of my cherry ice cream. He must have been hungry from spider hunting.
Wyatt wanted me to drive him to school -- he was attending Happy Hearts at the time. I don't know why he decided to have me drive him to school, but, that was fine with me. Audrey said that they were having a field trip to the fire department so she and Morgan were going with his class on the field trip, but I drove him to school anyway and they would meet us there.
We got in the car and Wyatt got in his car seat and yelled, "Ouch!" when he sat on his toy tiger. He said, "That hurt my butt!". We buckled up and drove on to his school. And, then he said, "I'm not supposed to say that word! I'll get in trouble!"
I said, "Do you get in trouble a lot?" and he said, "No, I don't get in trouble! Morgan is the one that gets in trouble a lot!" and, for emphasis, I suppose, added, "I don't get in trouble, but, Morgan does!"
I was cracking up listening to him talk about getting in trouble; but, we got to Happy Hearts where Mom and Morgan were waiting and I said, "Be good and don't get in trouble!" and Wyatt said, "OK!" and ran off to school with his spider!
(copyright 2009)
by Rick Ernst
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(Administration only)
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