"What is an adult? A child blown up by age." - Simone de Beauvoir
I returned about an hour ago from my jaunt to North Bay taken so I could celebrate Jacob's 18th birthday with him. When my friend Gail called and spoke with him on Monday, she asked him what he had the ability to do on Monday that he didn't have on Sunday. He answered that he could now vote and attend X-rated movies. The 18th birthday does grant a few more things than that. Jacob can also now sign a contract, get a credit card, join the military and be prosecuted for criminal acts in adult court. It really boils down for him though to voting. He's not much interested in the rest. Looks like he might have his chance to cast his first vote this fall if the political pundits are correct about what's coming.
Nancy joined me for the four hour drive. We arrived at the beach where Jacob is staying with his friend Robbie and Robbie's family around 2:30 on Monday afternoon. Jacob seemed happy to see us though I suspect he was as happy to see the new laptop I brought him as he was to see me. On Monday evening I took everyone to dinner at a lovely restaurant called Churchill's. According to it's web page, Churchill's has been rated among the top fifty restaurants in Canada. After a nice dinner, Nan and I headed back to our hotel.
On Tuesday we joined the gang for brunch in the morning and took our leave of North Bay at about 4:00 P.M. We stopped for the night in Huntsville, enjoyed a good fish dinner at a cafe on the river and settled in for a night of T.V. and puzzles. We hit the Huntsville shopping strip this morning, scoring some real finds in the Salvation Army store where Nan picked up a great old chair and a large box of porcelain dishes, in combination destined to become one of her famous mosaic china furniture pieces. We moved on to Bracebridge for an unproductive shopping expedition and then made the drive back to Toronto.
I wonder if many years from now, when Jacob has voted in many elections and will perhaps be facing the 18th birthday of his own child, he will remember when his mom made the long drive to ensure she could spend his special day with him. I hope he will treasure the memory as much as I will. I don't know how Jacob will process or store these events. What I do know for sure though, is he will never wonder whether he was well and truly loved.
Jacob has been (and is) well-loved and very well raised. In addition to loving him, I like him very much - more than I can say about many of the young folks who have not been thought of well enough to have the effort of a good raising...
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