Field of Dreams

My daughter (you know, Henry's mom) has already published a blog entry about the "Field of Dreams" that my sister made for me for my birthday. Paula really knew how to get to me by giving me something that I could use to play with Henry. The "farm" is a big square of green felt onto which Paula sowed a number of "fields", each one different in some way. One is dark brown felt and looks like newly plowed ground. Two of them have dark green fringe in rows that you can brush up to look like standing rows of crops. Others have rows of other kinds that could be any crop you might want to imagine. The companion lunch box (more on that in a minute) is full of farm animals, all of which Henry knew, including proper sounds. There are little fences that you can set up, so we corraled the cows and calves in one, sheep and lambs in another, and horses and colts in a third. Then we took the corn kernels that Paula provided and "fed" the animals, which Henry seemed immediately to catch onto. I got out my little John Deere toy tractor to add to the fun. I imagine there will be other farm implements in time. I definitely need to take Henry to one of the local implement dealers with me so that we can buy a combine, a wagon, or something else.

The lunch box was one that my Dad used when he retired from the farm (in about 1976, as I recall). He and Mom built a new house in Clarence, and Dad went to work for Bob Hunwardsen (niece Phyllis's husband) doing construction work. So Dad took his lunch to work each day. I didn't know Paula had the lunchbox. She painted some cute labels on it, including two I especially like, "Oh Boy!" and "Grandpa Came to Play."

When we were downtown for JazzFest, we went for a little walk around the Pentacrest and took a number of pictures. Here is one of me and Henry near MacLean Hall, where I worked in Computer Science for many years and where I studied mathematics and computer science as a student. Maybe that bright little grandson of mine picked up a few extra math, statistics, and/or computer science vibes that will inspire his career choices. Maybe he will be a high paid actuary or a cryptanalyst for the NSA (or maybe not).