first impressions

The other passengers smiled at the excitement, wonder and awe on our grandchildren’s faces during their first ever ride on the Metro to the mall in Washington D.C.
The electronic train stopped just outside our hotel room. From that point on, my husband eagerly, energetically shared everything he knew, saw or had ever experienced during his many visits to the nation’s capital. In spite of many visits, his enthusiasm as a tour guide never wanes. Although the grandchildren had been to Washington D.C. before, they had not ridden a subway, had never seen all the crosses at Arlington National Cemetery … nor many other sites in the city.
Their excitement at their first glimpses captured the attention and educational spirit of at least one other passenger. When the oldest asked about the Metro’s route under the river, the woman stood up, went over to the map on the wall and explained it to the third-grader before we reached our stop.
Our selected sites for the day included the Museum of Natural History and a couple hours at the Museum of American History. Thanks to tax payer dollars and donations, we did not have to pay any entrance fees. A full-sized elephant with trunk extended filled the entrance hall where we waited during the backpack check. The children elected to begin touring in the hall of dinosaur bones and other collected fossils.
We paired off, an adult with each child to tour at child’s rate of movement and interest. The kindergartner and I discovered the live exhibit of insects and a crowd waiting to watch the once a week feeding of the tarantula. The closest children jumped back when the museum worker pulled out the lifelike, but empty, exoskeleton that the tarantula had shed the previous week. My granddaughter moved in for a better look of it and the sacrificial introduction of the grasshopper to the glass cage. It’s not often that one gets to see a tarantula pounce on its dinner.
Nor, is it often that the children get to sit very quietly and feed pigeons scraps of bread placed on their shoes and heads … as they did during our sandwich lunch break. The pigeons shyly edged closer and closer until they snatched the crust and flew away to eat it. The pigeon lounge and lunch ended when a few boys from a school tour ran over and chased the pigeons away.
One lunch remains fossilized forever. It is inside the museum in the hall filled with dinosaur skeletons, a fish dinner inside a larger fish. I don’t remember if we were looking at that exhibit, but I will always remember the first grader’s comment, “Well, I’m impressed.”
His sentence summarizes my visit. As any good grandmother, I was impressed with my grandchildren – impressed with the birthday girl who blew out her solitary candle with her a princess-like puff. Impressed with her delightful smile as she played with and tasted the birthday treat. Impressed with the children’s enthusiasm and willingness to quietly listen as the Mt. Vernon tour guides explained about George Washington’s selection of the farming theme throughout his public parlor.
Their energy, enthusiasm and eager embrace of new experiences and knowledge only served to underscore the privilege of being their grandparent.
(Joan Hershberger is a reporter at the News-Times.)


Posted

in

by

Tags: