On the Road with Wonder Boy James Thorson

As things go I had an unusual trip this morning.  Christine and I attended Nathan and James football games.  The field was about a 45 minute drive from our home.  James’ game was first.  Nathan’s game was about half over when James decided he had enough and wanted to go home.  “Grandpa can you take me home” James asked.  Of course.

As we got to the car I told James that he could sit up front in the passenger seat.  Little did I know what I had done.  James’ eyes lit up “I can sit up front grandpa” he asked.  He then told me he had never, ever, sat in the front seat ever!  Come to think of it he probably didn’t never, ever sit up front. 

Literally, when I opened the car door to the front seat James, softly, said “wow."  And that was only the beginning.  As we began our trip home James began investigating all of the stuff the front seat occupant has access to.  He started with the center console, opened both of them, rummaged through all of the stuff, asking me what different things were and, from time to time, asking the “James question”  “Can I have this grandpa?” 

Then James pointed to the glove box.  “What’s this?”  “The glove box”, I answered.  “Go ahead and open it” I said.  He did.  More rummaging around, then he began to pull some things out, things I had forgotten were in there.  In fact he found a watch I was looking for!  He found a pen and pencil set that had Charity’s name on the box, and promptly asked for it, so I gave it to him. 

Then James discovered the switch to lock and unlock the doors.  In my opinion he spent entirely too much time working those locks!  Then the windows, up and down, up and down.  Thankfully his attention was drawn to all of the buttons on the dashboard and I do mean ALL of the buttons.  He asked me about the cruise control, the GPS, the phone, air condition, air condition mode, front and rear window defrosters, cd player, radio, even the gear shift lever.  As we neared home James, somehow, found the seat controls!   As I looked over there he was in the reclined position with his head all the way in the rear seat area.  The he moved the back of the seat up and down, up and down several more times and each time his eyes lit up with awe. 

As he sat up he pointed to the button that heats the seat, he pushed it, it heated, that was “neat” he said.  Finally, we got to the drive way and what did James see?  He look up at the headliner of the car and saw three buttons,  His curiosity was over the edge by now “what are these grandpa?’”  “Well, James, one of them opens the gate one opens the garages.”  “Which one opens the gates grandpa?”  “Number one button” I replied.  James unfastened his seat belt, reached up and pushed no. 1 button and the gates magically opened before his awe struck eyes. 

I confess I never realized the importance of riding in the front passenger side of the car.  Thanks to Wonder Boy James that has all changed for me.  Now I see nooks and crannies, buttons galore and a reclining, heated seat.  As it turned out it was a great trip home.  I can’t help but wonder what else James may have found in that car had our trip been just a bit longer.

That’s it for now, a newly aware grandpa signing out

Hal

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