Ice Skates, Pumpkins and Guitars

The legions are beginning to clamor. Nuanced emails are collecting in my in box. Outright consternation has begun.

It’s time to BLOG.

It’s no secret that PinF’s life in Florida mainly revolves around two things—Sophia and all her extra-curricular activities, and the enjoyment of my paradisiacal environment. Whether at the beach, or on my motor-cycle; or any other activity that combines the glorious weather of Florida with pursuits of blissful fancy that’s PinF’s pursuit in his free time.

Lately the PinF files have revolved around Sophia’s skating and guitar playing both of which bring me immense joy and even more pride. Sophia’s penchant for solitary endeavors obviously is a direct result of her being an only child, still her abundance of confidence in her abilities and even more importantly her self, are quite impressive. I’ve asked her if she wanted to do the more traditional activities i.e.: softball, and soccer—she’s just not interested in team sports. That she enjoys ice skating is something I’ve touched on before, and I believe there are aspects that mirror her more feminine likes (the fashions). Still, she’s not in it for just the “flash”, she is really good, and improving weekly before my eyes.

This month she graduated to level 6. Immediately I saw the degree of difficulty begin to rise as she now is learning much more technical skills. Her new instructor is a man, his name is Vincent and he is notably different that the women instructors, for starters he’s more technically focused. Often he’ll have a student do the same move 5 or 6 times until he sees they’ve learned it before he’ll move on. His one-on-one skill is different, and I believe all the girls accept his advice differently because he is a man and they don’t have the commonality they have with the women instructors, as such it’s more business on the ice. I’m extremely proud, and in awe of my little girl; her progress makes my getting up at 5AM on skate days worth the sacrifice.

Sophia’s guitar instructor is also a man, his name is Freddy and we’re very lucky to have found him. I found him on Craigslist. Turns out he’s a Philly boy, trained at the school of performing arts and is a multi-talented musician playing both drums and guitar. He’s quite taken with his little student, as Sophia’s concentration level as well as maturity and focus are beyond what he expected from an 8 year-old. Sophia’s all business at class, she’s now added “Smoke on The Water” to her electric repertoire and has almost learned all her chords, her week-to-week progress is really quite stunning. This is further proof that children can do or learn whatever they want, provided they are offered an environment that fosters learning, growth, and encouragement.

So now we’re at Halloween. This is Sophia’s time of year and she’s been planning her costume for months. I believe it’s a rock n’ roller, sticking to her themes I guess. On Tuesday I’m taking her and a girlfriend to a local theatre company for their Halloween presentation for kids, something we were meant to attend last year only to be cancelled due to Wilma. Tonight it’ll be memory lane. The 40th anniversary of “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown” will air tonight and we’ll be ready, popcorn bowl full in anticipation.

PinF loves these moments especially, probably because like a piece of LEGO, these are the moments that fit snuggly together; linking my past with my present and future. Sophia for her part would assume that tonight’s show is something unique to her—not something her Papi may have seen. This in itself is one of the coolest aspects of being a parent in this era. Unlike my parents, there weren’t too many common bonds in their childhood experiences that carried over to their children, case in point would be television and the technology that ensued. Incredibly, though technology has increased at lightning pace, I still get to enjoy the same shows from my childhood that my daughter does. Cool.

These shows take me back to much more innocent time in my life. I’m easily able to picture my mom thirty years ago, young, pretty, and 37 years young. She’s dressing my brother Bill as a Philadelphia Eagle, me as a hippie, Chris as a pirate, and Rob as a ghost—nothing store bought here, all of us conjured up by her own hands. Of course she still had her fifth goblin Scott, though he was too young to step out with the boys in Drexel Hill. Then we would excitedly shuffle out into the crisp October air laden with the smell of early season chimney’s burning and go shuffling through Drexel Hill neighborhoods of what seemed like hundreds of kids. The best part was you were safe, you were happy, and you were unaffected by the prevailing fears that covet the minds of parents today.

These were special times and we didn’t know it. Watching Charlie Brown tonight to see if he finally gets to kick the football will remind me of those special days so long ago. This is something we must all try to remember, because these days that we’re living now are “The good old days” to ourselves and children twenty years from now.





Happy Halloween.