From Generation to Generation

Kinley - November 4, 2012

The grain trucks aren't the only vehicles around here with their share of miles. This Little Tykes car may have lost its front decal. That happens to old cars, you know. But the second generation is now using it for transportation.

Jill - 1986

Here's Jill at about the same age as Kinley is now. The photo makes me laugh because she's standing on the seat of the car and peering over the front like she's checking the engine. (Since you can't see her face in that photo, here she is in the same dress with a big grin.)

Jill - 9 months

Jill was a bit of a daredevil - fast toddler car or not. I pulled her off the top of the dining room table on one occasion when she wasn't much older than Kinley. So Jill having a daughter with the same no fear attitude is fitting, don't you think?

Grandma and Grandpa Moore gifted Jill with her first set of wheels more than a quarter century ago. She and Brent rode miles and miles in that car. When Kinley came for the weekend to go to the wedding of one of her Mommy's childhood friends, we cleaned it up. You can tell by the big grin that it was a big hit with the second generation of short drivers.

Kinley - 10 months

My folks stopped by on their way to the K-State game to see Kinley - and the rest of us, too, of course.

So Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Moore got to see Kinley take her car on its first spin for the newest generation. My sister Lisa's grandkids have been cruising in their old Little Tykes car, too. Because Lisa has more than one "short" driver visiting at her house, she expanded her fleet by purchasing a convertible at a garage sale.

 

It was a weekend full of memories. The wedding gave Jill a chance to reconnect with some of her childhood friends.

And when we went to church on Sunday, Kinley was the fifth generation of the family to explore the big old Stafford First United Methodist Church.

Since Kinley would rather go under things like the dining room table instead of going around, crawling under the pews after church was quite an adventure. As she wove in and out, I thought about Randy's folks, who were such an integral part of the Stafford UMC. Before that, Randy's grandma, Laura Ritts, was a Sunday School teacher, a singer and did her share of Christmas pageants. (I wish I'd known her then, but by the time I met her, she suffered from dementia. I think we would have had a lot in common.)

While Kinley and her parents will make new memories in their own church, I couldn't help but think about Melvin and Marie up in the balcony on Sunday mornings. They would have loved to meet Kinley, too, just like my parents.

And, while we're talking about things that encompass new generations, Randy is doing his best to create the newest cat lover in the family. (Kinley has her Grandma Christy to back him up on that endeavor.)

I think she liked the car better.

But that could just be me.