by Pa Rock
Proud Grandpa
Boone Macy, my oldest grandchild, turns twenty-one today!
Boone was born in the wee hours of the morning on May 6th, 1999. In fact, it seems like Cinco de Mayo had been over less than two hours when his maternal grandmother telephoned me to report that he had arrived safely at the hospital in West Plains, Missouri.
I was attending graduate school at the University of Missouri in Columbia at the time of Boone's birth, working on a Masters Degree in Social Work (the much-lauded MSW), and when he finally got here I was living in Waynesville, Missouri, doing an internship with the state of Missouri in support of that degree effort. A few hours after that middle-of-the-night call I drove from Waynesville to West Plains and met my met my new grandson. He was tiny, and normal, and everything about him appeared to be wonderful!
Boone was born five days after James Hoffa, Jr. was sworn in at the General President of the Teamsters Union - a position that he still holds to this very day. I know that because as a part of my MSW program at the University of Missouri, I traveled with our class of graduate students to Washington, DC, to lobby Missouri congressmen on social work issues the week before Boone was born. While we were there we had one free day, a Saturday (May 1st - May Day) in which Jimmy Hoffa, Jr, was being inaugurated as the new Teamsters president in the park next to our hotel. While my classmates and our professors hit downtown to see the sights, I went to the Teamsters event and stood right up front less that fifteen feet from young Mr. Hoffa as his sister, a federal judge, swore him into office.
And, as long as I am digressing, just a few days after Boone's birth I was on another student trip, this time to do social work research in Russia and Sweden.
But even with all of that heady adventure and travel, the most important event of that era was the birth of my first grandchild, Boone Agustus Macy!
Boone is himself a college student today, a junior with plans to become an elementary school teacher. His in-person classes stopped midway through this semester due to this unforeseen national medical catastrophe, but he - and all of his fellow students - are learning to adapt with internet strategies. Education is evolving rapidly, and Boone and his group are at the very forefront of that transformation.
The stories of my time are quickly consigning themselves to the pages of history, but Boone's adventures in life are just beginning. I wish him all of the excitement and promise that life has to offer - and then some - as he breaks new ground and carries his story into the future. He marches to his own drummer and pursues his own dreams, but he also carries the legacy - and the hopes and dreams - of all of those who went before him.
Your forebears are cheering you on, Boone. Make us proud!
Proud Grandpa
Boone Macy, my oldest grandchild, turns twenty-one today!
Boone was born in the wee hours of the morning on May 6th, 1999. In fact, it seems like Cinco de Mayo had been over less than two hours when his maternal grandmother telephoned me to report that he had arrived safely at the hospital in West Plains, Missouri.
I was attending graduate school at the University of Missouri in Columbia at the time of Boone's birth, working on a Masters Degree in Social Work (the much-lauded MSW), and when he finally got here I was living in Waynesville, Missouri, doing an internship with the state of Missouri in support of that degree effort. A few hours after that middle-of-the-night call I drove from Waynesville to West Plains and met my met my new grandson. He was tiny, and normal, and everything about him appeared to be wonderful!
Boone was born five days after James Hoffa, Jr. was sworn in at the General President of the Teamsters Union - a position that he still holds to this very day. I know that because as a part of my MSW program at the University of Missouri, I traveled with our class of graduate students to Washington, DC, to lobby Missouri congressmen on social work issues the week before Boone was born. While we were there we had one free day, a Saturday (May 1st - May Day) in which Jimmy Hoffa, Jr, was being inaugurated as the new Teamsters president in the park next to our hotel. While my classmates and our professors hit downtown to see the sights, I went to the Teamsters event and stood right up front less that fifteen feet from young Mr. Hoffa as his sister, a federal judge, swore him into office.
And, as long as I am digressing, just a few days after Boone's birth I was on another student trip, this time to do social work research in Russia and Sweden.
But even with all of that heady adventure and travel, the most important event of that era was the birth of my first grandchild, Boone Agustus Macy!
Boone is himself a college student today, a junior with plans to become an elementary school teacher. His in-person classes stopped midway through this semester due to this unforeseen national medical catastrophe, but he - and all of his fellow students - are learning to adapt with internet strategies. Education is evolving rapidly, and Boone and his group are at the very forefront of that transformation.
The stories of my time are quickly consigning themselves to the pages of history, but Boone's adventures in life are just beginning. I wish him all of the excitement and promise that life has to offer - and then some - as he breaks new ground and carries his story into the future. He marches to his own drummer and pursues his own dreams, but he also carries the legacy - and the hopes and dreams - of all of those who went before him.
Your forebears are cheering you on, Boone. Make us proud!
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