The Family Sea

I'm a firm believer that bath time should be fun. And educational. I was just reminded of this while talking with my niece whose voice was nearly drowned out by the gleeful giggles and splashes of her two boys in the background.

What can you learn in the tub? Oh, lessons about cause and effect. Properties of (wet) matter. And maybe other things that matter - like family and how we're all connected.

My sister just reminded me of the Family Sea at Mama Darkey's house. The Family Sea provided great entertainment for us kids. It helped us all to know our place in the world. Our mom was the oldest (and fanciest) of Mama and Papa Darkey's "school" of colorful contact paper fishies. On our side of the sea, a daddy fish (probably wearing a toolbelt) swam alongside her, and then behind both of them were the big sister and brother fish, with the littlest (me) swimming among the bubbles.

Each of our aunts and uncles had their own color-matching schools of fish, but everyone swam together, basically in the same direction, fanning out across the wall and around the room.

It started with great-grandmother Lellah (Mom Mom) and great-grandfather Prentiss (Paw Paw). As long as I can remember, the Mom Mom and Paw Paw fish wore halos. And as time went on, halos were added to a few others. Mama Darkey's house in Virginia was sold to developers and demolished to make way for Lellah Court around 2003, but the Family Sea lives on in our memories.

I think every kid today has to do a geneology project in elementary school. This strikes fear in parents' hearts. So many of my generation were not raised with a solid awareness of our ancestors. We may live far away from grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

I'm wondering where I can start a new Family Sea. There has to be a perfect wall waiting somewhere ...