January 28, 2024
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When’s the last time you saw a dozen little boys – around the age of four – dressed as “knights” yelling battle cries and laughing as they conduct mock (“nerf”) sword fights on the front yard “jousting ground” of a residential home in your neighborhood?
If you lived in the Forest Hills section of Richmond VA this weekend … your answer would be SATURDAY!
… and the day just kept getting betterer anf betterer and betterer …
Young Danny Hindman has two primary interests – Knights and PIrates. The “Knights-theme” for his 4th birthday won out when asked which leg he wanted sawed off for his Pirate “peg leg”.
The invitation was specific that it would be “a melee” … a medieval term for a mass sword fight among knights. His pals from church, pre-school and the neighborhood all understood and prepared accordingly.
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Danny’s Dad – “Danny The Vicar” – (yeah, Little Danny is a “PK”) served as the Joust Master for the morning’s soiree. Basically two hours of “Capture The Flag” using inflatable shields and swords. It’s debatable who had more fun “Sir Danny” the young knight or Daddy Danny The Joust Master … or the parents / spectators cheering them on.
Casa Hindman is on a large corner lot across the street from a popular State Nature Park & Greenway. It was a BEE-U-tiful day so there was a ton of pedestrian traffic… hikers, bikers, dog-walkers, baby strollers etc etc …
Twelve little boys screaming battle cries and flailing away at one another with swords is darn hard to ignore. Impossible to ignore …
The reaction of passerbys was exactly what you might expect among “normal folks” in a “normal America” … a delighted curiosity. Of course, we currently have a quite Abnormal America. ….
Virginia has its share of beady-eyed socio-political whack jobs and assorted sideshow freaks. A few of that species appeared quite APPALLED at the VIOLENCE and “liitle boys acting like little boys”.
I kept an eye peeled for a SWAT team of Biden’s DOJ door-kickers swooping down on us. They didn’t.
Sir Danny’s sister Ruthie (AKA “Princess Moonbeam”) summoned her inner Xena and captured a few flags.
Grandma Blondie with 20+ years as a spec-ops commando in the Battle For America … set aside her flaming keyboard for the occasion and provided the rations for the young combatants … and for us non-combatants.
I have not done “the melee” justice … it will be long remembered throughout the neighborhood.
Yeah yeah yeah … I know most of you’ans – back in the day – had bb guns fights as kids and dipped your hollow-point bbs in cyanide … threw cherry bombs at one another … eschewed rubber tips on your arrows … and really burned each other at the stake …. blah blah blah … LOL.
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What can match “little boys being little boys” … howsabout “little girls being little girls”.
After the front yard battlefield was cleared of debris and body parts … a calm fell over the household.
I realized I had not seen Blondie nor Ruthie and her twin sister Scout for an hour or so.
They were on the screened-in back porch with Grandma teaching the girls how to sew !!!! … making little purses for their dolls and for their beloved nature-study teacher “Miss Olivia”.
NOTE: I am not a Neanderthal when it comes to strict gender roles HOWEVER I am a very aggressive supporter of Riley Gaines and her campaign against the Trany Terrorists.
Little boys playing “knights” and little girls learning to sew ….. a scene right out of Little House On The Prairie … WONDERFUL!
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BUT WAIT … It got even betterer …
Daddy / “Vicar Danny” … who you may recall recently lost a fist fight with a metal sign outside the VaDMV office … requiring surgery for a broken finger. The first ordained Anglican priest to do so …
… decided he could probably replace the starter in the family’s Honda mini-van. Hey, they have YouTube videos to teach you anything. How hard can it be … really!
With Little Danny cleaning his weapons and the girls learning to sew … what better time for Dad to master the intricacies of “shade tree” auto mechanics! Yeah boy!
With his 6’5″ 235 former Wheaton Thunder tight end frame bent-over the hood trying to manipulate a socket wrench … I strode over to ask if he was generating more “sermon fodder” for the congregation of All Souls Anglican Church.
His congregation loves Danny for his multiple eccentricities … which he is forever adding to. Bless his heart!
A member of All Souls who is a for-real auto mechanic arrived on-scene before Danny reached the inevitable point of bruising his knuckles with the stubborn socket wrench. The kids all being well out of ear shot IF that should happen.
Our daughter is the matriarch of an awesomely traditional “old school” American Family. An incredible six member team from Mom & Dad to baby Mary June at 18 months.
A wonderfully “typical young family in America” …. at least it used to be “typical”.
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I sure do hope each of YOU is similarly blessed ….
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This was my last visit to Munchkin Land for the next 4-6 months. I learned this past week that I have won(?) the Hodgkins Lymphoma Lottery. Apparently the first board-certified Internet Legend to be so diagnosed. Lucky me, huh!
Beginning later this week, yours truly and “Mr Chemo” begin a 12 session go-round under the expert care of my Duke Oncology Team. “My Team” specializes in “what I have”. Unlike its more well-known version of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma – my just plain “Hodgkins” version has a much better cure rate. Ergo, celebrations by board monkeys gangs among local Hated Rival factions is waaaaay too premature.
As we continue to be reminded over the past several decades … “column fodder” is everywhere … even, I’m betting, in the Infusion room at Duke Raleigh Cancer Center. So far, CAT and PET scans and umpteen blood tests and biopsies have been pretty mundane, but ya never know ….
Hellfire … I’ve still got an entire Western Civilization to save from itself. If not BobLee … then who?
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MORE BOBLEE’S RIMSHOTS ….. HERE
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