Dear Kid,

What a day.

Pablo Picasso was born in 1881, John Adams married Abigail Smith in 1764, and the Charge of the Light Brigade happened in 1854.

Today your sister kicked her first touchback which kinda tops the whole list. To be clear, she kicked a really long kickoff that bounced into the endzone, but technically it’s a touchback, so she’s a pretty happy camper. Hard to believe there’s only one weekend of high school football left.

And it turns that Costco’s chocolate chips are dairy free and come in a bag so big there’s no way even Pi and I can make a dent in one sitting. Happy us.

It’s a gorgeous day here. Hope you’re enjoying it as well.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

Hope you are enjoying pre-classes starting activities. Sounds like things are going well so far. We are eager to hear more.

Last night was the last pre-season football scrimmage. Sycamore vs Princeton (the high school, not the college) played three quarters with Varsity playing the first two and JV playing the third. The mosquitoes joined in somewhere in the middle of the second quarter.

Pi was Officially Starting Place Kicker for Varsity (do you think she’s excited? Only VERY!).  She was 2 for 2 on PATs. IMHO she should have had a third attempt, but Clarence got horsecollared 5 yards from the endzone. He was out the rest of the game with an injured shin. I believe his injury distracted the boys which led to a silly fumble which led to the wrong team having the ball which led to Not A Scoring Opportunity. I’m pretty sure we “won” 21 – 7 but I have to admit, I wasn’t really paying attention since it’s preseason. She’s off at films to find out how well they actually did.

The Freshman Football Team played before the Varsity/JV team and I spent some time talking to some of the freshplayers during the Important Game. It’s really cool how impressed they are with your sister. “She can really kick.” Yup. One of the boys from Princeton was not as accepting (although he may have been having a bad night–who knows) and didn’t shake her hand in the post-game Slap The Guy On The Other Team In A Show Of Good Sportsmanship Whether You Mean It Or Not line.

In Other News, all kinds of not-terribly-interesting things happening here.

We found the TV remotes, so we can stop wondering if you somehow sneaked them off to college or if Booker put them in his toy bin. Turns out the new couches find TV remotes especially tasty and have a hidden pouch for storing them. Dad performed a couch-ectomy and gave the furniture a Stern Talking To. At least we know the first place to look next time they go missing.

I got the car cleaned yesterday and discovered that it’s color is Green not Dirt. It took several muscular people, a large sandblaster, and an hour and a half to chisel away all the accumulated filth. They are putting up a plaque for the car inside the station because they set a new record for the number of towels needed to restore the car to some semblance of presentability. It’s much easier to see out the windows now without all the Booker nose-marks. On the other hand, every scratch, dent, ding, chip, and dimple stands out in the gleaming clean-ness. I am considering driving through a mud-puddle and going back to camouflage. Today we are going car shopping. Again. My head may explode. If there is no post tomorrow, you can assume it’s because I’ve been locked up for my own good.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

If you look up this day in history you will find that August 17, 1969 was the last day of Woodstock. This has nothing to do with getting ready for college, but sometimes you need a break. There are a lot assumptions about how Woodstock was groovy and lovely with a lot of amazing music, but in reality it was crowded and muddy with a  lot of amazing music. Here are a bunch of other things you may not know about that part of Rock & Roll history.

Once upon a time there was a city called Woodstock that got very famous for an event that happened someplace else. The Woodstock Music Festival (Aug 15-17, 1969) three days of peace, love and rock ‘n’ roll took place in Bethel, NY about 40 miles away from Woodstock.

The organizers wanted to hold the festival in Woodstock but the town objected which caused all sorts of angst until a dairy farmer named Max Yasgur offered up his alfalfa field. No word on how the alfalfa crop faired in subsequent years. I also have no idea why the name of the festival didn’t get changed to Bethel Music Festival.

There were ten million yards of blue jeans and striped T-shirt material at Woodstock. Give or take a pair or two. Mostly give. No idea who did the measuring especially as that doesn’t seem like the best job of the century.

Not only is the name of the festival misleading, the icon is too. The dove perched on the guitar neck is really a catbird, which is in reality more grey than white and is known for its catlike calls. No clue why someone decided to use a catbird as the icon for a peaceful music gathering.

Half a gazillion hippies crowded into the alfalfa (or what was once an alfalfa field) to trade showers and food for the opportunity to get rained on and hear great music. I was not one of those people, not being nearly old enough to forgo a daily bath and regular meals.

There were two wooden signposts nailed to a tree with street sign like arrows. One was “Groovy Way” with arrows in opposite directions. The other had “Gentle Path” pointing to one side and “High Way” pointing to the other side. Groovy, man.

Though the festival mood was anti-war, with the number of bodies and the lack of facilities and food things would probably have gotten very ugly without the U.S. Army, which airlifted in food, medical teams, and performers. (Well, what do you expect? The organizers planned for about half the people that actually showed up. Thank you to the Army Dudes for helping out.)

Not only did the Army pitch in to help keep people fed and healthy at the festival, a local Jewish Community Center heard that there was a shortage of food. They didn’t make kugel, but they sent over sandwiches which were distributed by nuns. (Fabulous, right?)

There are lots of other not-particularly-well-known facts about Woodstock. (You can look them up in your spare time.) Here is my fav. John Lennon wanted to play at Woodstock. But he was in Canada and the US government refused to give him a visa to get into the country. Can you believe it? The US government kept John Lennon, the John Lennon, out of the country. Clearly, no teenagers in the government at the time.

Speaking of teenagers, the first scrimmage of the football season was a huge success. Pi kicked Varsity and went 3 for 3 on PATs (Point After Touchdown for the uninitiated). There was only one touchdown, but during a pre-season scrimmage things like scoring are only decorative. She had an amazingly good time being on the field with the Varsity team and is is still bubbling about it. She is entirely enamored with being the shortest and lightest on the football team. We pointed out that she also has the best hair and the most piercings. None of which have anything to do with being a good kicker, but a LOT to do with being Pi. Photos anon. (Anon meaning “When Dad takes some and gets around to sending them to me.” Just ask Mr. Webster.)

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program of getting ready for college.

Love, Mom