Indian Summer

I remember the grand old house of my Grandpa and Grandma Van Lente on 17th street. For so many Sundays we were there as family, my folks, brothers and sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles and of course Grandma and Grandpa.

As you entered, first parking at the curb, then up the front steps, passing over the full length porch and through the front door you were greeted in the hall to the left by a large stairway with a wide banister heading up and the entry to the living room facing right. Just inside and to the left in the living room was Grandpa Van's chair. It always smelled of cigar or pipe smoke and sitting beside it or on the foot stool when we came was the Sunday paper.

I remember this because every year during a particular week in the late fall the magazine that came with the paper would feature the same cover. It was a painting and a story by John T. McCutchen which originally appeared in The Chicago Tribune in 1907. Every year in Michigan we have a short period known as Indian Summer which is a stretch of nice weather after the first frost but before the onset of the cold and snow which always follows. The cover was called Injun Summer and the story below the painting is the grandfather's tale about how the spirits of the long gone Injuns come back this time of year, turning the leaves to their reds, oranges and yellows.

The top half of the painting shows a grandfather, leaning against a large tree with smoke rising from his pipe talking to his grandson who was standing in front of him, looking out at a scene that had up front a large wooden rake lying on the ground, a pile of burning leaves and then an old rail fence as entrance to a field with a dozen sets of corn stacks piled together.

The bottom part of the painting shows the same grandfather and grandson but in the boy's mind the corn stalks were now Indian teepee's and in the smoke of the leaf fire were dancing "injuns".

I think for me there was this sense of comfort finding that same cover in the same place at the same time for so many years. Cousins would grow, Grandparents would age, my interests would change but Injun Summer assured me that like the seasons there were some things that you could always bank on.

It's funny but my memory of this was stirred up by a conversation I had yesterday with a test client from the nation of India. Gopi, who is 29 and who must have been nervous had about a dozen original conversation starters that he tried on me during our test. He started out by saying "Are you having a good day Bobb?" and then would add questions such as "What did you have for lunch today Bobb?"  (Jackie later told me I should have replied, "Nothing with curry in it, that's for sure.")

As we are driving Gopi inquires as to how old I am. I respond by asking him to guess. When he guesses 55 I tell him that he is so kind but off by 10 years. I can tell that he is a little confused that I am still working at 65 so I ask him where he sees himself at that age. "I think I will be dead by then" he says. "Why is that?" I ask and Gopi tells me that his father died of a heart attack when he was a boy. I find out that he is the oldest son and that one grandparent still lives from each side of his family.

My youngest daughter has a good friend who went over to India on a WYAM mission, met a guy there who was a son of a pastor and they eventually got married. Jackie and I met Sunder one day a few years ago at my daughter's home and had a nice visit. We find out later that he was quite impressed with us. "Becky, I use to think that when someone turns 60, poof, that was it, you were done, but after meeting your parents I think there might be hope."

Like most of the other people from India that I have tested over the years Gopi is a computer engineer who is employed by an Indian company that has contracts with clients in our country. He will be here for a year or three and then on to another assignment and eventually back to the heat and teeming humanity of southern India.

I say to Gopi; "If you are still living at 65 and retired, where will you be living and what do you see yourself doing?. Will you have a house or an apartment or will you be living with family?" Gopi tells me that the responsibility of the grandfather at that age is to enjoy his grandchildren. "To have a little money coming in, to live with my children and to play with my grandchildren, that is my dream."

I have been blessed with 18 grandchildren and do enjoy every minute with them but it sure is nice some days to hug them goodbye and say see ya soon or come again later. Perhaps after we retire Jackie and I will be able to live at home until death do we part and that would be sweet but you never know for sure what will happen.

In my mind I want to be like that old grandpa smoking his pipe (or in my case maybe drinking a Pepsi) and telling Injun stories to the youngest grandkids but I worry that I might be more like the grandma from the car commercials who is sitting way in the back saying that as a kid in a large family they only had one window and she only saw the moon 3 times growing up. My kids understand from wence they came but I not sure my grandkids have a clue yet.