I've been thinking about what it means to be a grandparent lately. I suppose that's because our little Elijah turns one year old tomorrow, and Brian will be two in less than two months. My wife and I have had a lot of fun with them since they were born, and we are grateful for every minute we get to spend with our boys.
In my earliest memories, my grandparents were already pretty old. My Grandpa Stanley, in fact, passed away when I was very young, and my Grandpa Ben before I was out of high school. I remember him a little better, not only because I was older, but because he was a very vivid kind of personality. He loved his family a lot, and enjoyed running into his grandkids uptown when he was on his daily rounds. We used to time our own visits to the barbershop so that we'd catch him there, because he liked emptying all the change in his pockets into our hands. Made walking home easier, I guess. Both my grandmothers were a little more reserved, but there was never any question they loved all their grandkids.
We've tried to pass that same love down to our own grandchildren. Brian was born March 15th, 2011, in Stafford County, Virginia, and we were there to welcome him pretty soon after Alicia and Nate brought him home from the hospital. We've been to Virginia several other times, and now to Pittsburgh as well, and we always have a lot fun when we can get there. Skype has turned out to be our best friend, because it lets Brian get his 'Nonna' fix every couple of days.
And then Elijah came along. In January of 2012, our daughter Margaret and her husband Nathan got a call telling them that a birth mother in a neighboring state had chosen them to adopt her little one (please ask God's blessing for her in your prayers - we do every day). Then, they got the call that they needed to be there pretty quick if they wanted to see the baby being born. They climbed in their car and raced a few hundred miles, welcomed him into the world on the 26th, and then we were able to bring him home on February 3rd. We're due to celebrate his first birthday tomorrow, and we can't wait.
So what is the experience of being a grandparent like? It's a kick, actually. It's like the sweet dessert at the end of a meal. You can enjoy the kids, but you're not totally responsible for them. That probably makes your whole relationship with them easier, and they pick up on that. It's a whole different level of satisfaction. And if you're young enough, and well enough, to get down on the floor and play with them before they can walk, how much fun is that? It makes me think of some of my favorite lines from Browning, in 'Rabbi Ben Ezra':
Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be!
The last of life, for which the first was made...
Friday, January 25, 2013
Friday, January 11, 2013
It All Began With Two Big Flowerpots
(One of my brothers has suggested that I blog about our annual family picnic, and I've been kicking it around in my head for a while. This is my first shot at 'blogging on demand', so please bear with me.)
In 2003, my brother Mike decided to try a little experiment. He's always been a big fan of smoked meats, like the rest of us, and he thought it would be fun to make his own smoker. With the help of my brother Jim, he took a wooden folding table, cut 2 holes in the top, and inserted a pair of big clay flowerpots, with holes also cut in them for heating elements. The elements sat near the bottom, and you could put wood chips on top of them to burn for smoke. Add a rack near the top and a cover and ...Voila! Homemade smoker! At least that's the way I remember it - I'm sure I'll be offered no end of detail corrections.
Anyway, what do you do when you create a tour de force like this? You share it, of course. So Ribfest was born. The first couple of years we had it at my brother Jim's house on Pecatonica Road south of Route 20. It was mostly family to begin with, and mostly the Tarbert family to boot, my mom's side. It's pretty much taken the place of a Tarbert family reunion ever since. Of course, it's evolved a lot as well. We started inviting friends, mixing margaritas, and adding different kinds of food, like baked beans and salmon and pork shoulders and game birds and lamb....ummm, lamb!
Where was I? Oh, yes, we've also added music, and moved the venue to a forest preserve south of town, on Best Road. We have also, sadly, put the original flowerpot smokers out to pasture, and bought (mostly my brother Joe bought) a big shiny meat smoker from Peoria Custom Cookers. It's called the 'Meat Monster', and it's our pride and joy. Go to www.peoriacookers.com/testamonials, and you'll see a bunch of stocky meat-lovers that may look familiar.
We always have our get-together on the Saturday in June that's closest to the summer solstice. My brother Matt claims it's because we're pagans, but I assure you that I (at least) am thinking about taking advantage of the longest days of the year, not honoring our pre-Christian ancestors. We have meetings throughout the spring about how many people will come, how much food we should cook, what kind of game birds my cousin Owen has in his freezer, whose turn it is to buy a round, and all kinds of other details. The Friday before the big event, we spend some time at Joe and Nancy's place stripping the back of the rib slabs, and possibly drinking a little beer, I don't really remember. Then, on Saturday, we're up bright and early to get to the forest preserve at 6:30 or 7:00AM, right as it opens. We set up the meat monster and the smaller auxiliary smoker for the game and the lamb, get things going, put the meat on the racks, eat a big greasy breakfast, and then....take a nap.
No, really, we're working all the time getting the beans ready, spraying for flies, and all the other stuff we have to do. Last year, the 10th annual Ribfest served 160 people, so there are a lot of small touches that need attention. We always plan to eat around 4:00PM and always seem to run a little later than that, but the well-oiled crowd doesn't seem to mind, as long as a few ribs show up early as hors d'oeuvres (I could have said 'appetizers', but where's the fun in that?). The party goes on long into the evening, like all good parties should.
Here's a small cast of characters that you might find useful:
Head Porkmeister: Joe Eaton
Historian and Rub Wizard: Mike Eaton
Chief Shepherd of Lambs: Matt Eaton
Game Warden: Owen Eaton
Breakfast Chef, also known as the 'Baconator': Jeff Eaton
Porkmeister-in-Training: Eric Boehm
Maintenance and Repair: Jim Eaton
Gopher: Shawn Eaton
I could go on for a long time, but I'm sure you get the idea. I look forward to Ribfest every year, because it gives us a chance to see all our family at once, including the newest members. If you're ever in western Winnebago County on a certain Saturday in June, and you hear music jamming from the forest preserve on top of the hill, stop in for a rib or two.
In 2003, my brother Mike decided to try a little experiment. He's always been a big fan of smoked meats, like the rest of us, and he thought it would be fun to make his own smoker. With the help of my brother Jim, he took a wooden folding table, cut 2 holes in the top, and inserted a pair of big clay flowerpots, with holes also cut in them for heating elements. The elements sat near the bottom, and you could put wood chips on top of them to burn for smoke. Add a rack near the top and a cover and ...Voila! Homemade smoker! At least that's the way I remember it - I'm sure I'll be offered no end of detail corrections.
Anyway, what do you do when you create a tour de force like this? You share it, of course. So Ribfest was born. The first couple of years we had it at my brother Jim's house on Pecatonica Road south of Route 20. It was mostly family to begin with, and mostly the Tarbert family to boot, my mom's side. It's pretty much taken the place of a Tarbert family reunion ever since. Of course, it's evolved a lot as well. We started inviting friends, mixing margaritas, and adding different kinds of food, like baked beans and salmon and pork shoulders and game birds and lamb....ummm, lamb!
Where was I? Oh, yes, we've also added music, and moved the venue to a forest preserve south of town, on Best Road. We have also, sadly, put the original flowerpot smokers out to pasture, and bought (mostly my brother Joe bought) a big shiny meat smoker from Peoria Custom Cookers. It's called the 'Meat Monster', and it's our pride and joy. Go to www.peoriacookers.com/testamonials, and you'll see a bunch of stocky meat-lovers that may look familiar.
We always have our get-together on the Saturday in June that's closest to the summer solstice. My brother Matt claims it's because we're pagans, but I assure you that I (at least) am thinking about taking advantage of the longest days of the year, not honoring our pre-Christian ancestors. We have meetings throughout the spring about how many people will come, how much food we should cook, what kind of game birds my cousin Owen has in his freezer, whose turn it is to buy a round, and all kinds of other details. The Friday before the big event, we spend some time at Joe and Nancy's place stripping the back of the rib slabs, and possibly drinking a little beer, I don't really remember. Then, on Saturday, we're up bright and early to get to the forest preserve at 6:30 or 7:00AM, right as it opens. We set up the meat monster and the smaller auxiliary smoker for the game and the lamb, get things going, put the meat on the racks, eat a big greasy breakfast, and then....take a nap.
No, really, we're working all the time getting the beans ready, spraying for flies, and all the other stuff we have to do. Last year, the 10th annual Ribfest served 160 people, so there are a lot of small touches that need attention. We always plan to eat around 4:00PM and always seem to run a little later than that, but the well-oiled crowd doesn't seem to mind, as long as a few ribs show up early as hors d'oeuvres (I could have said 'appetizers', but where's the fun in that?). The party goes on long into the evening, like all good parties should.
Here's a small cast of characters that you might find useful:
Head Porkmeister: Joe Eaton
Historian and Rub Wizard: Mike Eaton
Chief Shepherd of Lambs: Matt Eaton
Game Warden: Owen Eaton
Breakfast Chef, also known as the 'Baconator': Jeff Eaton
Porkmeister-in-Training: Eric Boehm
Maintenance and Repair: Jim Eaton
Gopher: Shawn Eaton
I could go on for a long time, but I'm sure you get the idea. I look forward to Ribfest every year, because it gives us a chance to see all our family at once, including the newest members. If you're ever in western Winnebago County on a certain Saturday in June, and you hear music jamming from the forest preserve on top of the hill, stop in for a rib or two.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
How Much More?
It's been a tough fall and early winter to be an Illinois sports fan. To start off with, the White Sox, after leading their division for a good chunk of the season, did their now-traditional September Swan Dive, and we had to watch the Tigers take the division and then the pennant, and then get blitzed (again) in the World Series. And then the Chicago Bears, after starting 7-1 in the first half of the season, took it down to the last game of the season and lost a playoff bid to the Vikings, who (surprise, surprise) beat a Packers team that had already nailed down the division title. Couldn't get any more disappointing than that, could it?
Oh, but it could. On New Year's Day, the NIU Huskies got their first appearance on the big stage of the BCS, and lost the Orange Bowl in Miami to Florida State by three touchdowns. I know it was a genuine testament to the way the program has improved in the last few years that they even got to play in a BCS game, but still - wouldn't it have been nice if they could have pulled it off? We're all proud of them, and looking forward to next season, but it's hard not to think about 'what if'.
That's three big slaps in the last four months of 2012. I know that the Orange Bowl was technically the first day of 2013, but honestly, 2012 was such a bummer that I prefer to think the NIU loss was just the last gasp of that miserable year instead of the first loss of the new one. More hopeful that way, somehow. So what do we do now? Well, there's no NHL at all, for all you major-league hockey fans, and I'm just not into basketball. So, I guess we have to wait till pitchers and catchers report to MLB training camp the middle of February. That's only six weeks, right? Can we last that long?
Oh, but it could. On New Year's Day, the NIU Huskies got their first appearance on the big stage of the BCS, and lost the Orange Bowl in Miami to Florida State by three touchdowns. I know it was a genuine testament to the way the program has improved in the last few years that they even got to play in a BCS game, but still - wouldn't it have been nice if they could have pulled it off? We're all proud of them, and looking forward to next season, but it's hard not to think about 'what if'.
That's three big slaps in the last four months of 2012. I know that the Orange Bowl was technically the first day of 2013, but honestly, 2012 was such a bummer that I prefer to think the NIU loss was just the last gasp of that miserable year instead of the first loss of the new one. More hopeful that way, somehow. So what do we do now? Well, there's no NHL at all, for all you major-league hockey fans, and I'm just not into basketball. So, I guess we have to wait till pitchers and catchers report to MLB training camp the middle of February. That's only six weeks, right? Can we last that long?
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