The day was going pretty, pretty, pretty good, until the UPS delivery driver came… It is always good to get a package. There is something almost magical, it is almost like a birthday, or Christmas in the middle of the year. Actually there as a bounce in elation because the driver was delivering a package to the house. No one had ordered anything, so there was an air of surprise associated with the delivery.
It was after the driver left that disappointment set in and it set in hard.
The package bore a sticker that said “Return to Sender”. It had come from the United States Military Academy at West Point. Close examination of the label indicated “Dropped”.
The feeling of pure dread began to settle in. Son John had recently been accepted at the Academy. We reflected on all of the hard work that has gone into the application process and that included securing the nomination of our State Representative. There had been work in getting in contact with the people to secure the recommendation.
The entire process was involved, but we stuck with it, determined to do anything and everything until the end. John had been fully committed to the process and certainly did his share of the work.
It was a good feeling to have a kid work towards something that he was he really wanted. There is a high degree of satisfaction being able to see your child with confidence, making decisions and having the tenacity to finish the task.
Not having a military background, my words were not specific to the military, but the philosophy of life and words of encouragement were sound principals for life and they seemed to be effective.
What in the world would make him drop was the first question out of the many that were making me dizzy with wondering what the heck was going on. The bigger problem was… Why?
Why would he not let us know that he was OK? The house was filled with love for him. He has been taught failure is not final. Failure is when you don’t get up, dust yourself off and get ready to take on the next challenge.
Meanwhile on the home front, we used every resource that we knew to track him down. A friend of his from New Jersey had a mother who had been in the military. Ed’s mom worked like a super sleuth and tracked him down. She made contact and had John call his Mom. I worked in remote locations, some that were not accessible to the phone.
At this time John was completely unaware of the panic we were experiencing here. When his call came in to the office where his Mom worked, Paula, the secretary had a touch of panic in her voice and he was told in as gentle a manner as was possible to stay on the line. The entire office came to a standstill because everybody held their breath. Anticipation filled the office.
When John said he was ok, the entire office let out a sigh of relief. John said that he was still a cadet at the academy.
To get to the bottom of the mystery, we sought answers. The solution to the mystery came when we found that the postal worker had looked at an adjacent box of a cadet that had dropped. We all could breathe again.
We related the story to an elderly neighbor. Unbeknownst to us, her son had at one time been a cadet. She began to tell us how “Son” had been a cadet at West Point. “Son” was what she called her son. We were struck with the originality of this name. Although we didn’t ask, we could imagine that he called her “Mother” and his father “Father”. Aww the all American family.
As she told us the story. We were filled with anxiety as she started, not sure if we really wanted to hear the story…
The story was short”…somebody ate Son’s apples”. It seems that she has shipped Son some of the world’s best apples, those grown in Washington State. Somebody or many Somebodies had eaten some of the delicious bounty that is so much better than those grown anywhere else.
We learn quickly, we never sent our son John any apples while he was at West Point.
News Flash! John graduated from West Point.
Now we have learned that his son, John has been accepted into West Point. While we did not go to the swearing in ceremony of son John, we were able to go to grandson John’s swearing in.
We knew that the commitment was a serious one. They allowed us to enter the Auditorium in batches as they gave information to parents and family about what to expect during the time the cadets were there, especially the first weeks when they would be in intensive training.
One minute we were there listening, smiling, grinning and full of excitement, but when they said “you have 60 seconds to say your Good Bye’s”, we knew it was serious. The session that we were in ended about 15:00.
The next time we were to see him, was on the parade field at 18:30. At this time, they had been given haircuts (we were all cheering this move) and would be in full uniform and in parade formation.
We had been prepared that when they went back to the barracks that they would be theirs.
Promptly at the appointed time, they marched onto the parade grounds, looking so good in uniform. So precise, like they had experience. At the close of the ceremony, many of the Mothers were in tears as the doors to the barracks closed behind them as they entered that world that we can only imagine.
We are not superstitious,
We don’t believe in good luck charms
We don’t believe in anything but hard work and prayer, but you can bet your sweet donkey that we ain’t gonna send no damn apples to West Point.
May God bless the class of 2019!