It was a rainy Sunday morning at the Wood Estate. I had just poured a cup of coffee and made the excursion out to pick up the Sunday newspaper which was sitting in a soaked plastic bag at the bottom of my driveway.

I know that in this digital age of technology I could have just popped open my laptop and browsed the news websites but the feeling of physically holding a newspaper and reading the headlines is one of the things I’ve just grown accustomed to.

While perusing the usual headlines of economic decline and political bickering I came across the movie listings. Something I typically just browse right over unless by chance I’ve already made plans to see a movie and needed to know the showtimes. This was not one of those days.

And yet I found myself stopping in mid page turn and going back to the listings to see what was playing at the two drive-in movie theaters we have in the area. 

As most people know, drive ins are on the endangered species list and I thought about making plans to take the family before summer ends. I always enjoyed the experience of going to a drive in movie growing up. I even worked at one as my first job out of high school.

All the while a voice in the back of my head was telling me that it’s already the middle of August and soon school will be starting and work will start getting busier again. The plan of my car covered in popcorn and soda might end up falling by the wayside but I justified it by thinking “Ah, the drive-in will always be there”.

But would it? All it takes is one bad year and the headline “Drive In To Close” could greet me in a future Sunday newspaper.

There are so many things we take for granted in the course of life. Little things, big things. Some that seem meaningless at the time. I found myself thinking about such things.

Real Things:

Our family: Grandparents, parents, aunt and uncles, brothers and sisters. We always think they’ll just “be around” until the day they no longer are.

Our children: Even though they grow up so quickly we always seem to take for granted the days that they’ll be the little toddler, the ten-year old playing softball or the bratty teenager. It never really hits us hard until they’re receiving their diploma and leaving the nest for new horizons. I wager I’m going to feel a huge emptiness on that day.

Simple Things:

The smell of honey suckle: I wrote about this in a previous post about motorcycle riding when I first reunited with a fragrance that signified the innocence of my childhood and running through fields.

How long until huge housing developments tear up the fields and make it obsolete?

Obscure Things:

The sun and the moon: These little spheres have been doing their thing in the sky forever. Without them, we’d be living in a block of ice and there’d be no high and low tides. But have you ever noticed the moon up there in the night sky and thought to yourself that people like Jesus, George Washington and Beethoven all walked under it the same way we do now? Probably not. But maybe you will tomorrow or the next day because it’ll still be there.

These are all things we don’t pay much attention to due to all the hustle and bustle of our lives. And why? Because we’ve taken for granted the fact that they’ll always be there. Always there for that one day when we actually want to call them, smell them, admire them.

As I closed the newspaper I thought more about making a family excursion to the drive-in. We can’t go tonight, it’s going to be raining. Maybe next weekend if the weather is better.

There I go again.