Date: Sun, 29 Nov 2009 11:56:28 EST
From: Bwstories8@aol.com
Subject: Castaway Hotel: Grand Reopening - Book 4, chapters 23 - 24

Castaway Hotel -- Grand Reopening -- Book 3 by BW
Copyright 2009 by billwstories
Chapter 23 -- Reminders of the British Empire.

**Author's Note:** Please read the disclaimer in Chapter 00 before you read
this.

We spent our next two days at the British Museum, examining the multitude
of cultural wonders the British had collected over the centuries.  You see,
they took full advantage of their dominance of the seas and their control
over these various locations, while they were part of the British Empire.
During that time, the realm collected all sorts of valuable pieces of art,
relics and artifacts from all around the world, from the multitude of
ancient cultures that had once flourished and then disappeared.  Now, many
of the accomplishments of these peoples were on display in the British
Museum.

The building itself is a huge structure, consisting of lower level, ground
level and upper floor, so it would take more than just a single day to
appreciate what we wanted to see there.  Besides, I like to take my time
and discuss the various displays and pieces with the boys, hoping to pique
their curiosity and build an insatiable quest for knowledge.  Even though
they feign boredom during many of my discussions about what we're seeing,
hearing them talk later about some of the same things we'd discussed, more
than lets me know they don't mind it as much as they sometimes portray.

This morning, we had an unusually large breakfast before we left to come
here, since I figured we might get so wrapped up in the displays that we
might just forget about eating.  As remote as this possibility may seem
given the boys' appetites, we'd nearly already done that on other
occasions, so I wanted to be prepared in case it happened again.

As we walked up to enter the Museum, it felt like we were approaching and
entering some massive Greek or Roman temple.  This current edifice was
constructed in 1847, in the Greek Revival Style, complete with enormous
columns and an elaborate portico.  We passed through and under these
colossal features and then proceeded through the main entrance, moving on
to the exhibit areas.  This was truly an awesome experience and it was like
traveling back through time, as we toured the various displays.

As we made our way along the ground floor, we began by exploring some of
the treasures of the ancient Greek and Egyptian civilizations.  The boys
were instinctively drawn to the splendor of the artifacts of Ancient Egypt
and we were soon absorbed with the vast collections of statuary,
sarcophagi, mummified remains and the other treasures of the pharaohs who
ruled the lands along the Nile.  The amount of gold they used to create
some of the statues and funeral masks was like a magnet and sucked the boys
toward those items until they were hooked.  They were also drawn to the
finely detailed and elaborately painted pieces, as well as the jewelry,
tomb paintings -- and then they discovered the mummies.  After finding
those items, the questions began in earnest.

"Whose mummy is that?" Trey asked, while Graham shouted out, "Did they make
everyone who died into a mummy?"  Luckily, some of my older children or
their spouses began fielding some of these questions, as they were coming
so fast and furious that I couldn't possibly respond to them all.

"Man, those mummies are very small, Dad," Sammy observed, while studying
them carefully.  "Are you sure they don't belong to children?"

"Some of the mummies might have been children of a pharaoh or might even be
the mummy of a pharaoh who passed away young, like King Tut, or
Tutankhamen.  He was only in his late teens when he died," I replied, "but
even at eighteen or nineteen, he most likely would have been full-grown.
Looking at the inscriptions of the mummies shown here, though, these are
all adults."

Dion and Trey were talked into lying on the floor next to the cases
containing the various mummified remains, so the boys soon discovered most
the mummies were at most five foot six inches tall, while others were
barely five feet tall or shorter.  We discussed how the average height of
mankind has gotten taller over the centuries, which gave them a lot to
think about.

>From that topic, we went on to discuss the tombs of the pharaohs, their
ideas concerning the afterlife and the underworld and their reasons for
putting so many items into the tombs of these deceased rulers.  Someone
then brought up the assortment of 'Mummy' movies, while also mentioning the
supposed 'curse' of the mummies, and that led to even more discussion.
Even my older children were getting very involved in discussing these
things and there was some good interaction between them and their younger
brothers.

After spending even more time in this area, while studying the many
representations of the Egyptian gods and some of their rulers, we moved on
to look at the Rosetta Stone, which was actually the key that helped to
unlock the secrets of Egyptian hieroglyphics.  Until Napoleonic soldiers
discovered this stone in 1799, no one could decipher what the Egyptian
symbols meant.  The Rosetta Stone, which was created during the time of
Pharaoh Ptolemy V and contained the same decree written in three different
languages, two Egyptian (hieroglyphics and demotic) and Greek, with the
Greek helping to unlock the meaning of the strange writing system used by
the Egyptians.  After talking about that for a brief time, we finally moved
on to the displays from ancient Greece.

The wonders of the Golden Age of Greece were equally as impressive and they
even had elements from the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World on display,
including a portion of the Mausoleum at Halecarnassus, in Turkey and a
section from the Temple of Artemis, at Ephesus.  We saw all kinds of
statues, many missing their heads or limbs, but some were still nearly
completely intact.  There were collections of pottery, columns from various
buildings (some even carved in the shape of women), and a small temple.

"Those marble statues over there and the friezes came from the Parthenon in
Greece," I told the boys.

"How can they freeze there?" Cole asked.  "I thought it was warm there."

"Not freeze, as in water turning to ice, but a frieze, as in an artwork
carved into the flat surfaces on a building," I informed him.  "In this
case, it was in the triangular face above the columns, formed by the
sloping of the roof."  I began to hear some snickering from a few of the
others, thinking Cole's mistake was funny, but after receiving an icy glare
from me, the snickering stopped suddenly.  I didn't want Cole to feel bad
about his mistake and refrain from asking other questions.

"Do you know what the Parthenon was?" I asked, to no one in particular.

"Yes, it was a large temple that sat up on a hill, overlooking Athens,"
Trey announced, quite accurately.  I guess his extensive reading had paid
off.

"Exactly, it was a Doric temple, built in the fifth century BCE, to honor
the Greek goddess Athena, the goddess of wisdom," I added.  "In fact, at
one time the Parthenon contained an enormous statue of Athena.  It was made
of ivory and gold and stood between thirty and forty feet tall.  However,
that disappeared long ago."

"Man, who got all that gold?" Dion marveled, think of the wealth that
indicated.

"Invaders who plundered and destroyed it," I regretfully admitted.

As we moved along after leaving that area, we discovered pieces from
ancient Rome.  Since the Romans had been very impressed with the Ancient
Greeks, they also sought to duplicate the splendor of their architecture
and artwork, as well as duplicate and surpass the accomplishments of their
civilization.

Some of the first things we saw was an amazing assortment of statues,
vases, cameos, money, jewelry, a frieze from the Temple of Apollo, various
artifacts from Roman soldiers and gladiators, Roman mosaics, and busts and
other items representing certain notable Roman emperors.

"So the Romans just copied the Greeks?" Brandon asked, after noting the
similarities between the collections."

"Not exactly," I answered.  "The Romans did incorporate much from the
Golden Age of Greece, but they often took those ideas and expanded upon
them.  Do any of you know what the Roman Aqueduct is?"

"That's how they got water into the cities," Danny responded.  "Some of
them look like bridges, but are really narrow."

"Yes, that's very true," I agreed, "and if you look at those structures,
you'll see they utilize many arches in their construction.  Well, it was
the Romans who first used the arch and discovered how it would accept a
great deal of stress, while eliminating much of the weight and materials
that would be needed if it were a solid structure."

"And they were the ones who had the gladiators who killed each other and
fought animals too," Graham added.  "Isn't that right, Daddy."

"Yes it is, and I'm pleased that you knew that," I told him, which caused
Graham to stand a tad taller for the next few minutes.

Now that we had seen some of the splendor of those three magnificent
cultures, it was staggering to think of how much they accomplished and how
much they left for future generations to see, considering the limited
technology of their day.  To merely call it impressive and inspiring would
definitely be understatements.

After that, we examined pieces from the Ancient Near East, which included
antiquities of the Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian (Iraq), and Persian
(Iran) empires.  It also included items from the Canaanites, Phoenicians,
Syrians, and Israelites, who dwelled throughout the lands of Syria,
Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel.  There were also pieces of the Carthaginians
(Tunisia), the Hittites and Urartians (Turkey), and the South Arabians
(Yemen, South Yemen, and Saudi Arabia).  These items covered the time
period from about 7000 BCE until the seventh century AD.

"But where are all these places?" Sammy asked, unable to recognize the name
or comprehend where they were located.

"The names of these places are generally different now, but if you can
think of looking at a map, it would cover the area from Greece, extending
through the Middle East and going as far as India," I tried to explain, as
simply as I could.  "It would also include parts of North Africa, as well."
He seemed satisfied with that answer, although I wasn't sure he could
actually picture it in his mind.  I would try to find a visual aid to
explain it better later.

One of the most impressive of these items was an Assyrian sculpture of a
colossal human-headed winged lion, so I took advantage of it.  I had the
whole family gather in front of it for a group picture.  I even found
another tourist who was willing to snap a few pictures of us.  After posing
for those serious group pictures, the boys started hamming it up for the
camera, so I took the camera and played along with their silly mood.  They
moved under the head of that massive sculpture or sat between the excessive
number of legs, while others pretended to cower in front of its fearsome
form.  I snapped pictures of their antics, letting them have their fun,
while saving these moments for posterity, before we moved on.

>From there we viewed other statues and items done in bronze, gold and
stone, as well as a selection of paintings, mosaics and relief sculptures
that were far too numerous to count.  It has been a long and active day,
but I think it was well worth our time.

When I looked at my watch, I realized we had spent the entire day there,
and we were all exhausted and hungry.  We left the museum and quickly
located a place to eat.  The youngest members of our group, Nicky, Jordan,
Andrew and Sammy, were so tired from standing and walking that they almost
fell asleep as we waited for the food to be delivered.  However, the smell
of their dinner brought them back to life and they stayed awake long enough
to finish most of it, before they began to give into their weariness again.

By the time we finished our meal, my son and son-in-law had to carry their
sons out to the bus, while Danny and Dustin hoisted the other two up,
letting their brothers sleep on their shoulders, even after they were
seated on the bus.  Needless to say, that night most of us turned in early.

The next morning we had another large breakfast, this time with everyone
knowing in advance what we'd be facing, and the women filled their purses
with snacks for the boys, in case they needed something to tide them over
while we were there.  Today we started out with the Asian displays, with
items from Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia.  These were quite
different from any of the works we had seen thus far, both in dress and
style, and the boys were both surprised and impressed that Andrew and Sammy
knew so much about much of this work.

Although some of this knowledge had come from our trip to visit their
grandparents, it was also obvious their parents had not only made sure they
understood their own heritage, but also taught them about other oriental
cultures as well.  They answered many of the other boys' questions for me,
about whom or what the items represented and what the various other items
we viewed were.  My two little 'experts' were soon held in high esteem by
the rest of the family, including the adults, and basked in their
fifteen-minutes of fame, even if it was a limited recognition.

After that, we toured the artifacts of Early Britain, including the period
before the Roman conquest, during the Roman conquest, and throughout the
medieval and later day periods.  The items included ancient chess pieces,
royal seals, coats of armor, weapons, chalices and other serving pieces,
jewelry, textiles and mosaics.  Some of the pieces were from the nobility,
while other items were from the early Christian church, especially the
artifacts made from silver and ivory.

Next, we saw items from various locations in the Pacific, including such
places as Australia, New Zealand, the Easter Islands, the Hawaiian Islands,
the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea.  Many of these items were brought
back to England during the voyages of Captain James Cook, since he was
among the first of the European explorers to visit these peoples.  The
items in these displays were also much different from what we had
previously seen, with some, like an Easter Island moai monolith, which is
one of those huge, oddly shaped stone heads we often see pictures of.  It
almost seemed surreal or even extraterrestrial.  Of course, the boys wanted
their picture taken beside it, so I obliged them.

"Do you think the people who lived on that island really looked like that?"
Pat asked, while looking at its grotesque features.

"They may be exaggerated likenesses, with elongated heads and bodies, but
they are thought to be depictions of some of their chieftains or gods."

"Sometimes you see things on their heads," Pat added, "are those hats?"

"That's one of two possibilities," I told him.  "The other would be a hair
style, possibly similar to what the Japanese Sumo wrestler is noted for,
because they also call the hair they tie off on top their topknot."

Pat had no more questions and most of the boys were now ready to move on,
so we started moving again.  We finished up our time at the British Museum
by making a quick tour through the additional display areas, the first
containing a wide variety of manuscripts, books and drawings.  Entering
this location seemed to bring Dion and Trey back to life, as they were
drawn toward the various reading materials.

"You won't have time to sit down and read any of these," I teased, bringing
a grin to each of their faces.

"We know, but we want to see what things they've got in here," Trey
announced, with Dion's confirmation.

The items in this area included many wonderful things, such as the Magna
Carta (which limited the power of the king and put an end to arbitrary and
unjust rule), Papal Bulls (church decrees that got their name from the
bulla they were sealed with), religious texts (including various bibles),
non-English items (including the Diamond Sutra, an important Buddhist
scripture), early copies of Shakespearean works (including the First Folio
from 1623), hand-printed and illustrated pieces (like a late 15th century
copy of Aesop's Fables), and an illustration done by Michelangelo (for one
of his figures for 'The Bathers', which he did during the winter of
1504-1505).

The second of these special rooms contained an assortment of coins and
medals from many different places and periods throughout history.  We saw
Egyptian coins (including the coin of Ptolemy, 305-282 BCE), Greek and
Roman coins (including a silver coin with the head of Juno Moneta, from
whose name the word for money was derived), and Renaissance medals.  There
were coins from Sicily, Japan, Iran, Sri Lanka, India, Burma, Great
Britain, America, Hong Kong, Denmark, Venice, France, and Spain.  There was
also paper money, cowrie shells (which were used as money in Africa,
ancient China, & India), and even money made by imposters, pretenders and
usurpers.

While viewing these various displays of money, we also learned why Spanish
silver crowns were once referred to as pieces of eight.  These, and
doubloons, were the coins that the pirates stole from the Spanish and
buried until they could be fetched safely later.

"Why did they call their money pieces they ate?" Jordan asked me,
seriously.

"Not pieces they ate, but pieces OF EIGHT, like in the number eight," I
explained.  "They were called that because they could be broken up into
eight pie-slice shapes, or bits, to make change.  That's why a quarter is
sometimes referred to as two-bits, or two- eighths or one-quarter of a
dollar."

"You mean like in the football cheer, two-bits, four-bits, six-bits, a
dollars, all for <our school> stand up and holler?" Kevin asked, picking up
on that timeworn chant.

"Exactly, I told him, and it's also why the American stock markets were
originally based on eights, sixteenths and thirty-seconds and stayed that
way for much of their history, and that's only starting to change now.

By this point, someone suggested they were hungry, so we decided it was
time to finish up our tour and go out to eat.  We made one final survey of
the family, to see if there was anything else that anyone wanted to see
again or if there was something that we might have missed, but everyone was
satisfied with the two days we spent there.  This brought to a weary end
our first week in the UK.



Castaway Hotel -- Grand Reopening -- Book 3 by BW
Copyright 2009 by billwstories
Chapter 24 -- A Change of Pace.

It was now the weekend and we decided to take a break from our sightseeing
routine and take these two days to relax and unwind.  We all got together
to decide what we wanted to do and we soon came to the conclusion that
there were some definite differences in opinion between the sexes.  The
three women wanted to do some shopping, so we let them make their own
plans, while we continued the discussion amongst the guys.

My oldest son and son-in-law were going through a severe case of sports
withdrawal and needed a fix.  They'd heard about a cricket match that was
going to be played in the area later in the day, so they suggested we
should go to see it.  They thought it would be neat to learn about another
sport and hoped it would alleviate their boredom.  Many of the older boys
also thought that was a good idea and decided to join them.  Since not
everyone was thrilled about that prospect, I decided to take the remainder
of the boys to a movie and then maybe a walk around another section of
town.  We gave our driver our list of intended destinations and then he
made up our route and dropped us off accordingly.

My group watched a movie at a theater located near where the cricket match
was being held.  The movie we selected was one that would appeal to a wide
variety of ages, but this one had an added bonus, it was quite comical.  It
was about a group of pre-teen and teenage boys, neighborhood friends, who
happened upon a crime and showed the wacky things they did to try to stop
it.  The younger ones liked it for its slapstick routines and humorous
dialogue.  The older boys identified with some of the characters and I
could see them mentally placing themselves in that role, enjoying their
favorite actor's success, as he foiled the criminals' attempts at pulling
off the perfect crime.  For me, I enjoyed the belly laughs I got from the
antics of the boy thespians, but gained a sense of relief when my boys
admitted they'd be smart enough not to place themselves in such potentially
dangerous situations.

After the movie, I took the boys for a walk and we came across several
interesting places.  We were in one of the smaller 'village-like' areas,
away from the center of London, and it contained a series of small shops
that we just had to check out.  There was a butcher's shop, where the owner
was busy cutting up a wide variety of meats to fill requests by his
customers, but there was nothing else in the shop besides the meat.  The
boys thought this was very strange, as they had never seen any meat sold
except in a grocery store, yet this one didn't sell any other items.  I
explained this was how things had been done for hundreds of years, before
the advent of the modern grocery store, and the boys began to wonder aloud
how people shopped when they had to go to so many different stores to get
everything they needed.  They concluded it would be a waste of time and
liked the current situation better.

Next, we found a small store that might have been the setting for Charles
Dickens' 'Olde Curiosity Shoppe'.  It was an historic Tudor building, one
where the upper floor hung over the lower one, and the doorway was short,
made to accommodate the smaller size of the people of that time.  Some of
us had to duck to enter the building and it was almost like crossing a time
portal as we wandered around the interior.  I purchased a few things for
our home, a couple of trinkets for the boys, and a few things for those who
weren't with us.  We did strike up a conversation with the shop's owner
before we left, learning about a couple of interesting events we could
attend the next day.  We thanked him for his assistance and then left his
fascinating establishment.  I knew the boys would tell the others about
this place in great detail.

We also walked through some residential areas, noting that most of the
houses were what we would have called two-family or duplex houses, but each
family owned its own side.  Nearly every home was well taken care of,
fenced in and had a garden of some sort in either the front or rear of the
property.  The English seem to love their gardens, especially flower
gardens, and took great pride in making sure theirs met their own rigorous
standards.  We saw several different period designs among the homes, from
Tudor to Victorian, Gothic revival to Jacobean, and Georgian to Queen Anne.
This made for some interesting viewing and some even more interesting
discussions about their various features.

By the time we got back to the bus, our shoppers were already there and the
sports fans arrived shortly thereafter.  That group was more than ready to
tell us about the unique, if not somewhat confusing, match they had just
attended.  "It was really strange," Adrian began.  "It was played on a
circular field and the batter could hit the ball in any direction.  There
were no foul areas, like in baseball."

"Not only that," Michael added, "but the batter could stay at bat and keep
scoring, by running between the two set of wickets, until he made an out.
But if he stopped running before he was put out, then he could bat again.
In baseball, we think one hundred runs batted in during a season is great,
but in cricket, the batter can score one hundred runs in a match."

"And their bats were funny looking," Ricky added, making a face.  "The
handle look like a bat handle, but it was flat, like a paddle."

"And the guy pitching was called a 'bowler' and he had to keep his arm
straight when throwing the ball.  He couldn't bend it at the elbow, like we
do when throwing a baseball," Brandon added.

"But I know what is meant by a sticky wicket now," Michael explained.  "At
each end of the pitch, which is the long rectangular strip in the middle of
the playing field, there is a wicket.  The wicket consists of three posts,
called stumps, with two crosspieces on top, going between the outer and
inner stumps.  Those pieces are called bails.  Well, one way to get an out
is to knock the bails off the stumps, before a batter is safely touching
the spot behind it.  So if you hit the stumps and the bails don't fall off,
it's called a sticky wicket."

"One of the other spectators told us this was just a regular match," Danny
added, "but during the test matches, which are like our playoffs, a single
test match could last for several days before it was over.  Man, and people
think baseball is slow and boring to watch!"

We found Danny's comment comical, but the entire explanation was
interesting, at least to those of us were somewhat athletically inclined.
It sounded like it could be quite a complicated game, if we were to learn
everything about it.

After they finished telling us about the cricket match, my group told them
about the movie and about the shops we had stopped at.  We then proceeded
to show them the things we had purchased in that final shop, giving each
their own small remembrance that had been selected for him or her, trying
to match their tastes with the items the shop had for sale.  Among the
items purchased were pewter mugs and various other pewter pieces, such as
small castles, dragons and knights in armor, as well as some elegant
necklaces and earrings for the ladies.  Everyone thanked us for his or her
particular present, before the ladies showed us some of the items they had
purchased.

"At least we bought something for everyone," Kevin teased, after seeing
what they had, "but they mostly bought things for themselves."

"Well, you could have gone with us and bought things for yourself too,"
Marie snapped back, not giving an inch.  "But you can have the jewelry you
bought me, if you think it would look better on you."  The others laughed
at his last comment, much to Kevin's dismay.

That evening we had a rather large meal, in what might have been considered
an American type steak house, and passed the time talking about a variety
of topics, in between courses.  Everyone wanted to know what was on the
agenda for tomorrow, but I told them it was to be a surprise.  I knew that
a couple of the boys had heard me talking about this with the shopkeeper,
but I also knew they would get as much pleasure from watching the others
wrestle with not knowing what we would be doing, as I would in revealing
the surprise to them later.  But for now, I would keep it a secret.

We spent the evening riding all over the city on the top deck of a
double-decker bus, enjoying the beauty of London.  It was quite lovely with
the wind blowing in our faces and enjoying the wonderful evening we
happened to be lucky enough to have.  When we finally arrived back at our
hotel, we made our way off to bed because, as the British would say, most
of us were quite knackered.

You might have noticed I said most and not all, as the boys in the 'sex
room' had a little energy left to spare.  It happened to be Danny, Brandon,
Ricky and Jay again.  It hadn't been scheduled that way, but the boys did
some switching and swapping of times so they could be together, since the
younger pair had been offered a chance at a repeat performance at anal
intercourse.  Danny and Brandon had agreed to let the boys do them, as long
as Ricky and Jay would let them do something similar between their thighs
or in the crack between their butt cheeks.  Neither boy had any objections
to this, since it hadn't been a problem for them the previous time they'd
done it.  However, this time they chose to switch partners from their
previous encounter, before having another go.

Once again, it was quite satisfying for all involved, but every time they
did it, Ricky and Jay couldn't help but think about what it would be like
when they finally got to do something like this with a girl.  Doing their
brothers was awesome, which led them to believe that doing it with a female
would be even better.  Therefore, they looked at this as practice for the
real thing, once they met a young lady they were interested in and who was
also interested in them and agreed to get intimate.

Sunday morning we had a quick breakfast, before we attended services at
St. Peter's Church, located a short distance behind Buckingham Palace.  We
hadn't been sure what to expect, but the service wasn't all that different
from what we were used to.  The church was small and wasn't as elaborate as
either Westminster Cathedral or St. Paul's, but it was a very nice church
and had nearly a full congregation in attendance.

After church, we went back to the hotel, changed quickly into more
comfortable clothes and then headed to our next stop.  Soon we were pulling
into a football stadium (that's soccer for those in the US), as we were
going to attend a celebrity-charity game.  Now, the celebrities weren't
playing, they were just sponsoring the event, but they were roaming
throughout the crowd, as they helped raise money for a small group of needy
organizations.

My entire family began the day by trying to see whom they could identify
and gleefully pointed out each celebrity they recognized to everyone else.
They spotted singers, actors, politicians and other sports stars, not only
British, but international celebrities as well.  I immediately spotted
Pele, and then had to explain to most of the boys who he was -- THE
greatest Brazilian football player ever.

Just a moment later, my daughter Elizabeth spotted Prince Andrew,
accompanied by his two daughters, just before the boys pointed out Elton
John and Phil Collins, two well- known musicians.  Shortly after that, my
daughter-in-law, Andrea, noticed Liam Nieson, the actor.  Since we had seen
so many already, everyone was busy trying to see who else might be in
attendance.  They constantly scanned the faces in the crowds, but most of
them got into the game once it started.  It was fairly exciting, by English
football standards, ending in a 4-3 score, the final goal coming only a
minute or so before the game ended.  After the game was over, we actually
could see many of the celebrities waving to the crowd, thanking them for
attending and supporting these special causes.

After the game, I took everyone to a sandwich shop for a late lunch, but we
didn't actually eat it until we reached Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park.
The gardens were quite lovely, filled with trees, flowers and a body of
water known as the Serpentine.  There were boats on the water and other
people were swimming or sunning themselves on the shore.  We could also see
Kensington Palace, one of the Royal abodes and one that had housed the
likes of Princess Diana.

We also saw the monument to Peter Pan, the ageless boy created by James
Barrie.  This created a very excited discussion, especially for Nicky and
Jordan, since the Disney version of Peter Pan was one of their favorite
videos to watch.

"I like Captain Hook," Jordan said, with a devilish grin.  "He's funny,
running away from the crocodile all the time."

"Uhnt uh," Nicky challenged.  "He's mean.  He tries to hurt Peter Pan and
the lost boys."

"But Peter tries to hurt Captain Hook too," Jordan objected, trying to
counter Nicky's argument.

This got more of the older boys involved, as they tried to entertain and
amuse the younger members of the group.  Soon, we had Peter Pan, the lost
boys, Captain Hook and Mr. Smee, along with a couple of Indians running
through the vegetation chasing after one another.  Nicky suggested that
papa (that's me) could be the Indian chief.  I thanked him for being so
thoughtful of his grandfather, by making sure I had the role of an
authority figure, and he and Jordan laughed as I made faces to get into
character.

"Ugga, wugga wigwam," I told them, spouting whatever gibberish came to mind
that I thought might sound like an Indian chief talking.  In fact, I might
have even stolen that line from the Disney or theatrical version of Peter
Pan, since it sounded vaguely familiar.

However, I participated for only a brief time, just long enough to give my
braves and some of the others a few instructions, and then we left them to
their own devices.  As the boys continued their little game of
make-believe, which they continued for nearly an hour, we grown-ups amused
each other.  After watching the boys' portrayals of the various characters
and their attempts at what they thought were appropriate accents for each,
some of which were quite comical, we decided to just sit and chat.

"Dad, how do you keep up with them?" Marie asked.  "They even tire us out."

"Hey, this old guy can take care of himself," I muttered, in my best
feeble, old man voice.  "You young whippersnappers just ain't got any
stamina any more.  Well, back in my day..." I stopped there, as they got
the idea.

"Pop, I just admire how you get the boys to learn so much on these trips
and still have fun," my daughter-in-law, Andrea, the teacher, told me.
"You must have been one fantastic teacher, before you became a principal."

"I just remembered what it took to interest me," I told her, "and I try to
use that same technique to grab their attention.  It doesn't always work,
but they usually humor me, so I don't throw them to the wolves."

"Oh, they know you'd never do that, Dad," Elizabeth offered.  "They know
you're an old softie when it comes to them.  I've heard them say so, but
they also told me how scared they got when you got mad at them for having
the party at the house and when you thought one of them was a thief."

"Or when he chewed me out last vacation," Robert interjected, with a touch
of sarcasm.

"They know my expectations of them and do try not to cross certain lines,"
I agreed, "although I've never threatened to throw any of them out."

"I think you're sending Frankie away scared them," Adrian told me, "because
I've heard a couple of them say they don't want to end up like Frankie.
They do know you did it as a last resort, but the fact that you DID do it
makes them think twice before they'd try anything they know would upset
you."

"I guess I never looked at it that way," I admitted.  "I didn't do that as
a scare tactic, it was just that Frankie left me no choice.  He was a
threat to some of the others and a thief, but I would have worked with him,
if he'd only shown an inkling of remorse.  The thing is, I can understand
how the boys might also interpret my actions with him as meaning I'd send
any of them back, if I got fed up with their antics."  It gave me something
to think about.

As our discussion started to wind down, I called to the other boys and told
them it was time to move along to our next stop.  When they all rejoined
us, we made our way to the bridge that crossed over the Serpentine, walking
across it to get into Hyde Park.  It was then that the boys noticed the
huge stack of speakers and other equipment that had been set up and asked
me what was up.

I explained there would be an open-air concert here this evening, once
again done for charity, with some local club bands performing, as well as a
couple of the better known celebrities we saw earlier in the day.  I made
another donation to the charities, in exchange for our being admitted, and
we were soon seated or sprawled out on the grass, waiting for the concert
to begin.

A couple of the club bands began the evening, followed by the teenager,
Charlotte Church, who can sing with the angels.  Another club band followed
her, before Phil Collins stepped up and performed a couple of numbers.  He
really got the place rocking.

After him, another couple of club bands followed and then Elton John took
his turn at the mike, doing some of his all-time hits, including 'Candle in
the Wind'.  By the time the evening ended, everyone was thoroughly happy
with the entertainment we had just enjoyed and the change of pace by doing
something relaxing.  As the crowd thinned out, we headed back to our hotel
and turned in early, because tomorrow we would make our first day trip,
this one to Windsor Castle.


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