I made a couple of visits to our son’s farm yesterday. In the morning, I stopped by to use the tools in the shop to make some simple blocks. The blocks, inspired by the classic game Jenga, have phrases from the prayer of Jesus on them. For some young learners, having something that they can physically manipulate reinforces learning and we often are thinking of games that we can play with learners of all ages in our work as Ministers of Faith Formation. While I was at the farm, I filled several buckets with rich loamy soil from the compost pile to take home for the raised flower beds that I have constructed. Later in the afternoon, I returned to drop off the buckets at the farm.

My second trip was after school and our 5-year-old granddaughter rushed out to greet me and see what I was doing. She was still wearing the dress that she had worn to school and her new coat. On her feet were a pair of bright green muck boots. Muck boots are essential footwear at the farm this time of the year. There has been enough rain for the groundwater level to be pretty high and there are puddles all around with lots of mud. The parts of the pasture where the cows have been fed are really muddy. When I saw her in her dress and new coat with the muck boots, I remembered the rule that we had at our home when I was growing up that we had to change our clothes upon coming home from school before we went outside to play. I don’t know the rules at our grandchildren’s house about school clothes and play clothes. I decided to compliment her on the boots - a good choice of footwear for running across the yard to speak with me at the barn.

She didn’t say much about the boots at first. Instead she said, “I know what PE stands for. Do you?” “Yes, I replied. PE stands for Physical Education.” “We have PE at school,” she told me. “I know. We had PE when I went to school, too.” “You have to learn about PE,” she continued, “The letters don’t go with the words.” I had to think about this for a minute. She explained to me that “physical” begins with an “F” sound. That resulted in a long conversation about how the word actually begins with the letter “P,” but it doesn’t have a “P” sound in that word.

Then she told me that her boots are no good for PE. Finally the conversation began to make sense to me. She is the third child in her family and she is the third child of that family with whom I’ve had a conversation about ending up in PE class wearing muck boots. It is a definite fashion faux pas at Custer Elementary School. It is also easy to see how it could happen. In the rush to get ready for school in the morning, parents send the kids to get on their shoes and jackets and not much attention is paid to which shoes they choose. Muck boots have no laces to tie. They are easy to slip on and off. A rushing child chooses the easiest footwear to slip over their feet. Everyone is checked to make sure they have their lunch and backpacks and rushed to the car. Car seats, seatbelts, the baby strapped in and off they go. They arrive at school and the kids jump out and run to greet their friends. Another day successfully started. And no one paid any attention to which shoes the kids were wearing.

Later, in PE class, the disadvantage of muck boots when running, jumping, and engaging in games is obvious. Other children notice and children can be a bit harsh when teasing another child about their choice of footwear.

A visit from grandpa is a good opportunity to talk through the whole episode, but the feelings are fresh enough that it takes a bit of conversation before the story emerges. It is one of the great advantages of being a grandpa. I’m not in charge of getting children ready for school, planning meals for children, doing laundry for them, picking up after them, finding lost socks and shoes for them. I don’t have to drive them to school and make sure they have what they need for the day before rushing off to do my own work.

With three other children in the house and dinner to get on the table, homework to check, a baby who gets fussy at the end of the day and all of the other activities of a busy household, the parents don’t have the luxury of pausing for a long and sometimes slow conversation. Being a grandpa, however, gives me the luxury of time. No one gets upset when I sit on the tailgate of the pickup and have a conversation with my granddaughter. I didn’t have any work that was more important.

It is not that I am bored. In fact, I’m quite busy. I have a class to teach this morning. We’ll go to the church to make preparations for a special intergenerational worship service later today. We have the usual chores of buying groceries, preparing meals, doing laundry and keeping the house clean. But our days also have time for reading books, sitting and reflecting, making toys and gardening. Like everyone I know, I have a list of undone chores, including some home repair tasks that seem to always get ahead of me. I have a shelf of books in my library that are waiting for me to get around to reading them. My desk is as cluttered and messy as it was when I was raising a family and working full time. But I have time to sit and talk. And I have the extreme luxury of living where I can stop by and see my grandchildren whenever I want.

Maybe wearing bright green muck boots with a purple dress isn’t considered the height of fashion in Kindergarten PE class, but the image of my granddaughter wearing the outfit and discussing the nuances of spelling and phonics with me is one that will put a smile on my face for years to come. Collecting memories is one of the joys of my life.