Every October around this time, I drive up to Shoreham/Wading River to visit my daughter at her home. The road, William Floyd Parkway is usually very accessible except for the Saturday and Sunday afternoons before Halloween. Often the 6-minute trip from the LI Express to her home is fast and easy. But at this time of the year, it gets bogged down with traffic that spills out of the entry to Route 25, the exit before my daughter’s home. It is because of the many families that go pumpkin picking on the local farms.
I often wonder how long this family tradition lasts as the children get older and the parents less interested in doing this ritual. It is not unlike the second child syndrome, where new parents note in the ‘baby book, everything that is happening. First haircut, first words, etc. are meticulously recorded for all times sake. Come to the second child, not only don’t you do it again, they can’t even find the first child’s book.
If you look through your family photos, the ones in that shoebox, you will find a ton of pictures of your first child’s years but you need to start shooting the second child’s pictures. That, of course, falls by the wayside pretty much. You panic and call friends and relatives begging for photos, ANY photos they may have from a function that includes the second child.
Remember that first day of school? You made your prodigy stand in front of the camera as you shot the photo intending to do this until his last day when he would receive his doctorate from Yale. Instead, the last photo you got was of the child sitting by the pool after his graduation party from the local community college. You wonder, “Where did the years go?” You also wonder what went on the night before.
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