We Went To MegaCon!

As I posted yesterday, we went to MegaCon in Orlando, today.  I lied to my grandson when I picked him up from school.  I told him his mom's car was flaking out!  I let him sleep in a bit this morning, then told him I had errands to run with his uncle.  He was fooled until we got about two thirds of the way there, then he recognized the route.  It was a great time for three people who enjoy each other, enjoy sci-fi and video games and anime and the arts and crafts it spawns.  

So, what's that all to do with preparing for hard times?  

aliens having a good time rolling dice!

People who survived the Great Depression hardly ever started out their stories of hard times with a list of things they didn't have.  They began by remembering their family's closeness.  They told of one time we went camping in the mountains with all the men from Papa's coal mine.  My mom didn't know she was poor.  She knew she was surrounded by family and friends.  She didn't know those men were all on strike and being hunted by the Pinkerton Agency.  She was five.  She spent a summer in the mountains.  There were a lot of stories of playing guitars at night and listening to the radio for two hours a day for news and entertainment.  

The good memories get us through the hard times.  Who has ever buried a loved one and sat talking of the one time that person was rude?  We remember them as we want to remember them and hang on to the good memories as long as we can.  

Today, I gave my grandson something to hang onto when hard times may try to rip him apart.  We talked and laughed and he shared a memory of his grandma who passed last year.  The reason he enjoyed shooting the Nerf gun at the fully armored Star Wars Storm Trooper is because his Grandma Sandy used to play Nerf guns with him and she wasn't afraid to take a hit.  The trooper reminded him of her.  He told us how once she took a fall over a couch and swore him to secrecy because it lacked a certain grace.  He laughed and shook his head.  He's ten.  He has Grandma Sandy in a good place in his mind.


Today, my son and I had good talks about where we were, the movies we have seen together, the time I took him and his brother out of school for a "Dr.s" appointment that turned out to be an episode of Star Wars when there were only six people in the audience and none of his friends could see the film till the weekend.  Apparently, they became the envy of their classmates.  Good Times!
The best part of that memory was also, he and his brother did not know we were poor because we had so much.  

I don't know how you are going to do it with your family but, go, make a memory to warm a heart against hard times.