"Saturday in the Park....."

Rodney and Grandpa Doug


Today is my firstborn's 48th birthday. We celebrated the occasion at a park in WDM last Saturday. It really doesn't seem possible that he is now a grandfather. Rodney's mother, Katrina, is Doug's oldest daughter. She was trying to explain what it was like, being a mom. I told her I understood, I felt the same way after Doug was born.

I used to carry around a quote I read in a book after I became a mother for the first time. It was something along the lines of "After you have a child, you don't belong to yourself anymore. You live for your son's life. Everything you do is for him."




Doug, Kristi, Kari and Mike (Xmas '71?)

Doug was almost ten when Chicago released their single "Saturday in the Park" written by Robert Lamm. He was a big Chicago fan as well as The Eagles, Rod Stewart, Queen and many others I've forgotten. He wore bell bottoms, platform shoes and his hair long - a 70's teen. And I was forever telling him to turn down his loud music. I couldn't stand it then - funny how some of that same music became favourites with me after he left home.






This is the first professional picture taken when Douglas Sumner Botkin was two months old. His outfit was red and white. The background rug was orange and my hands are beneath it holding him up. In those days you had to wait until a traveling photographer came to town. This one was from "Wellman Photos - Eddyville, Iowa". I stood in line at the old Barker Hotel in Corning, hoping my baby wasn't tired and fussy by the time it was our turn.

Doug was named for his father (Kenny's middle name was Douglas) and his great-grandfather, Charles Sumner Botkin. I had to explain many times that his name was Sumner, not Summer. I had two boy's names and two girl's names picked out. He was supposed to be Anthony Gerard, but after I saw him, I knew he was a Doug, not a Tony.



Here Doug is a year old in a four-generation picture with me, Great Grandma Bessie Lynam and Grandpa Louis Lynam. Doug's a couple years older in his above grandpa picture with Rodney than my dad was here.

Another four generations with Doug at two months old, me, Grandma Ruth Lynam and Great grandma Delphia Ridnour.

Doug was a good baby. He was even a good boy growing up. Oh, there were a few occasions - sneaking out the upstairs hallway window out onto the breezeway roof and out with friends when I didn't know about it until I caught him coming back in early in the morning - and getting a phone call from the West Des Moines police when he was a teenager. But the majority of the time, he was my 'right hand man'. I don't know what I would have done without him.

"Saturday in the park,

People reaching, people touching,

A real celebration...."

Happy Birthday, my first born, Douglas Sumner!