Relax–you know this post isn’t about dope. I’m talking about the road trip we took yesterday. Mom, Charlie, #3 Daughter, Youngest Grandson (6 years old) and I drove down to Grayson County to show the grandson Charlie’s old stompin’ grounds.

We went to Caneyville to see where Charlie’s grandfather lived and where the story happened that I used as a basis for “I’ll Fly Away” in the Southern Indiana Writers’ MOST WANTED anthology. We drove up to the Allen Cemetery to see where Charlie’s father, grandparents and uncles and aunts are buried, on the highest point in Grayson County. We went to Falls of Rough and saw the parsonage where Charlie’s parents were married.

Then we went to the Rough River Dam State Resort Park Lodge restaurant for their Wednesday lunch buffet. Folks, I fell off the turnip wagon. I mean I fell off so hard I bounced over the guard rail and escaped into the wild. They had my two greatest animal flesh weaknesses: chicken & dumplings and ribs & kraut. I ate until I foundered. I’m not proud of it, I only state it as a fact. Supper was a raw tomato, so I don’t feel as bad as I should.

Somewhere along the way, Youngest Grandson asked to take a picture. I have a digital camera given to us by his

father several years ago, which means there was no film to waste or spoil, so I handed it over. He snapped a bazillion shots, missing most of them because he shot faster than the battery could reset and because he was so careful

with the camera he didn’t push the button hard enough to activate it. I asked him to loop the  lanyard over his wrist so the camera wouldn’t fall to the ground if he dropped it. Every time I handed the camera over to him, the first thing he did was put the lanyard over his wrist. When he saw that his pictures hadn’t all taken, he said, “Will you show me how to take pictures?” Then he listened carefully as I told him, and did as I suggested.

Here are a couple of his pictures. Charlie thought he was just playing until we got home and I showed him the shots that had actually registered. The kid was looking for shots, experimenting with shots, taking multiple shots of the same thing from different angles. I think he has a good eye, especially for a 6-year-old! In fact, here is a shot of one of them.

On the way home, he amused himself and his mother by taking short movies until the batteries were dead and the memory card was filled up. Then he asked me if I could make him a copy of all his pictures and movies so he could show them to people. It was a very long trip and he’s a pretty young kid, but that camera turned out to be the saving of the day. None of us got bored or tired or unhappy, and he and I totally bonded over our snappies, sharing the camera without squabbles.

Great day.

Long-time readers (~waves to Mom~) know that I don’t post pictures of kids on the internet, but I’m making an exception in the case of Youngest Grandson’s friend, who was also along on the trip. Let his grandmother worry.

WRITING PROMPT: Have a character bond with a much younger character over a shared enthusiasm.

MA