Strong Ears

 

You Can’t Make This Stuff Up

You can’t make this stuff up.  That’s what I would call the story I’m about to share.  It happened on a recent mountain trip with my son Ted’s family.  They had just had a baby girl six weeks before to add to their two rambunctious boys.  It was their first long outing with three children in tow.  My son drove, his wife rode in the passenger seat, I sat next to the baby’s car seat and the two older boys were each in a car seat at the very back.  My job was rather easy because the baby slept most of the trip.  I mostly was the liaison between the front and back seats with an occasional pacifier replacement duty.  We had just left Tuckaleechee Caverns in Townsend, TN where we enjoyed a long and exhausting tour of the fascinating underground cave.  There were over 200 slippery steps to maneuver and various places where you had to watch your head.  Although I didn’t have to watch my head because I am the height of a fifth grader, it was exciting and educational too.  On our way back to our resort in Pigeon Forge, Cassie, my daughter-in-law suggested we take another more scenic route.  We wanted to see everything we possibly could on our travels.  It turned out to be a rather mountainous, winding road.  The nearly five-year-old, Grayson, in the back was looking at a phone and all of a sudden shouted out that he thought he was going to throw up!  Cassie handed me the first thing she could find to act as a “bucket” for him to use.  After all, we had borrowed her mother’s car for the trip, and it was our responsibility to keep it as clean as possible given we had 3 children to transport.  What she handed me to give him was a quart-sized soda cup half-filled with Dr. Pepper.  I quickly passed it to him, and he promptly tilted it to the side and spilled most of it on the car interior.  My son, in the meantime, was looking for a place to pull off to the side of the road.  I had purchased a book at the gift shop and had a small plastic sack available at my feet.  I hurriedly took the book out and handed the bag to Grayson for insurance that he might use it to throw up in.  He took it and without hesitation put one handle on his right ear and one handle on his left ear and then proceeded to wear it like a feed bag in front of his mouth!  It was hilarious.  Charles, who is seven years old corrected him saying he better hang onto it with his hands, or it would fall down if he threw up in it.  Grayson shouted back “NO, my ears are strong!” and continued to wear his makeshift throw up invention until we arrived back at the resort.  He didn’t ever throw up, but my son did have to clean up the Dr. Pepper that was spilled.  These are the moments that memories are made of!

Tammy Harvey

7/31/2024