Today is Labor Day, the holiday traditionally associated with the end of summer, and which these days - after listening to the ads on the radio and commercials on television - seems to be all about mattress sales. I myself, however - as a longtime Colorado resident - always tend to associate Labor Day with hiking up in Rocky Mountain National Park. My ex-wife Lisa, brother-in-law George, and sometimes George's cousin Richard (as seen in the above photograph from left to right), my sister Susan, and I would go hiking together on both Memorial Day (when the above photograph was taken) and Labor Day. Memorial Day was often iffy, with deeper and deeper snow (and more and more fog and mist) the higher you went. By that time my wife Lisa usually started crying and refused to go further, and we would turn around and head to Estes Park to drink beer, which certainly sounded like a good idea to me. As for Richard, he and George's cousin Ana Silvia (who came up to Denver from Honduras to help care for Richard's mother, known as Aunt Frances to the rest of us) got into a big feud. Richard remarried, and when Ana Silva criticized the care that Frances was getting at a senior living center, Richard's new wife forbid him from associating with any of us again. Poor Richard is 80 years old now, and never had the chance to say goodbye to George (the two of whom have been friends since childhood), who passed away last month. People can be so petty, and it often winds up hurting them more than the people they are trying to hurt. Sad.
No comments:
Post a Comment