Grandma's Story - Chapter 3 Part 2

Chapter 3, Part 2

My best friend when I was 13 was Ellen B., who was in my class. Ellen had those 50’s style glasses with blue plastic frames; she had bunny teeth and straight hair with bangs. Ellen was a great writer, loved Elvis Presley (I didn’t) and in the early days of TV, we both loved “Captain Video”, a program about space. Even then, I was destined to be a Trekkie! Ellen’s family had a bungalow in Rockaway Beach for the summer. We would write each other long (20 pages!) letters during the summer. I would write her all the episodes of Captain Video that she missed since she had no TV set at the beach.

During Lent, Ellen and I went to daily Mass and then we would walk up and down Linden Street talking. We talked about school and boys and deeper things. Like God and life and growing up things. Ellen became a nun, a Sister of Mercy. After many years, she left the convent and was going to write a book about her adventures there.

We also liked to read Nancy Drew books. The first book I read was my Mom’s. You probably know that Carolyn Keene, the author of Nancy Drew, wrote way into her 90’s. Ellen and I also play acted Nancy Drew. I was Nancy, Ellen was George, Aunt Kathy was Carolyn Keene, and our friend Mary was Bess.

Mary W. was another good friend who lived on our block. She was Kathy’s friend first. Mary was Protestant and went to public school. Her Mom and Dad were divorced, which was very unusual in those days and her Mom had to work (also unusual) cleaning house for the S. family. Mr. S. was our druggist. His wife was great at getting things out of your eye and taking out splinters. By the way, Kathy and I are friends with Mary to this day and still write to her.

Finally the BIG day was coming. A week before graduation, my Mom went to the hospital to give birth to my brother Jeffrey. She vowed she would be at my graduation no matter what! And she was. I did win lots of prizes at graduation plus surprise gifts for winning the essay contest and the scholarship. I had to carry them in both hands walking down the aisle. I tried hard not to feel proud but I was proud. My face broke into a wide open mouthed grin as I bit back the happy tears. It was a wonderful day and a great start to being a teenager.

May 2006

Pride

I am proud of all six of my gorgeous, precious grandchildren. But this blog entry is dedicated to the oldest, Marina age 14. Marina just completed a three week internship at the Bronx Zoo. Half of that time, she spent with us since we live so close to the Zoo. It was a pleasure having a teenager in the house again. It's been kind of quiet since the nest emptied years ago.

Of course Marina is not what I think of as the stereotypical teen, blasting Hip-Hop music, chatting endlessly on cell, U-tube (?) or text messaging. She doesn't even own an I-pod or a cell phone. So it was very easy to be with her, sharing her fresh juicy ideas, hearing her enthusiastic description of her intern experiences, even listening to her doubts and frustrations about working on a group project.

And it was a real joy to see how she grew in those three short weeks. Taking responsibility for rising early (M. is not a morning person!) by preparing her lunch and clothes the night before. Learning the ins and outs, ups and downs of a Zoo career - from mucking out the enclosures in the Children's Zoo and walking the retired miniature horses to taking notes, complete with illustrations, during class. Perhaps her greatest accomplishment was adapting to the "team" approach, not easy for any age.

I was so proud to see her finished project last Friday. All the young people did a marvelous job designing exhibits and building scale models for various animals of Asia, Africa, and North America. Marina's group did the Bengal tiger and her artistic strengths and creativity shone brightly in the lush greenery and neatly painted and sculpted landscape of their exhibit. I believe she learned a valuable lesson - you don't have to be an expert at everything when you work as a team. Just learn to be patient, listen, and utilize each team member's gifts and talents. Skills to last a lifetime.

You know, I think I grew through this experience too. After observing Marina's home school friends this summer and seeing what the young Zoo interns accomplished, I believe that typical teens are more like my granddaughter after all. And that feels much, much better!

For more about Marina's Zoo adventures - and pictures even! - see "my daughter's blog" (sidebar).