My neighbors Parker and Patty are always telling me how proud they are to be a part of Port O Connor, Texas. They say it is a great community and so friendly.

They recently had all the kids and grandkids in for July 4th Celebration. Fishing, eating, fireworks and fun were on the agenda. The grands range in age from young adults to just a year old.

One of the younger grands is a cutie who seems to know she is Pop Parker’s soft spot. At just 3 years old she has long red curly hair and huge cornflower blue eyes in an expressive little face making her almost impossible to say no to.

One evening at family dinner her older siblings were giggling non-stop. Pops asked them to settle for the blessing, told them to eat and hoped their giggle boxes would get turned back right, but nothing worked. They were tickled and could not stop laughing. Finally, frustrated adults told the preteen gigglers to leave the table and wait in the laundry room for 15 minutes. Not two minutes later, Pop’s little red head was in tears and dramatically inconsolable. After Pops worked at calming her down and she swiped her tears and wailed in theatrical misery, ‘Oh Pops, I wanna go to the laughing place too…”

The whole table laughed which did not amuse the little actress and soon the family realized it’s the laughter and the tears that make family time special. The small moments were discussed and the kid quips were reminisced.

One grand ended a several year lightning and thunderstorm fear when Pops convinced him God was shooting fireworks for the angels. Another grand asked great grand if the tooth fairy left her money for her dentures at night. One grand told Patty that she should open a school and restaurant and teach other grandmas how to cook because his friend Lucas had a grandma who fed them ‘bad food’ and grandmas were supposed to make ‘good food.’ Come to find out they had eaten liver.

The oldest grandson told his class in kindergarten that his granddad Pops was a ‘great fisher who would bring a POC shark to show and tell.’ Pops promptly caught a little black tip, put it in a metal tub and drove 4 hours to attend kindergarten show and tell.

These were just some of the POC Family Time memories and stories discussed around the table. The gigglers returned and joined in the remembrances. And of course, Patty and Parker and all the family got a holiday reminder that sometimes you have to laugh…