In the second of a series of “grandmother ninetieth birthday bashes” the family gathered on Holliday Shores along Holliday Road in North Springfield, Pennsylvania for Grandmother Holliday’s big day. Aaron flew into Cleveland the night before me, and when I headed to the hotel to pick him up Friday morning my clearly hungover brother met me next to a van with a giant picture of the rapper Ace Hood on its side. His words were something to the effect of “I can’t remember last night, but some dude with massive dreadlocks just fist-bumped me in the lobby and said ‘Yo! You was crazy last night!'” With the aid of his digital camera, several cups of coffee, and a bit of time the story of the evening slowly emerged, and it turns out he had partied hard with a bunch of gangsta rappers; such is the life of Aaron.
The drive to North Springfield was relatively uneventful with the exception of a stop to pick up sunglasses – Aaron chose the Magnum PI look, while I went in another direction and was sporting some Dog the Bounty Hunter glasses when we finally arrived. Uncle Jon provided ample entertainment, telling everyone that Aaron had spent the night “with some really famous rapper than no one has ever heard of” and then supplying us with chocolate fish while traipsing around in bright orange shoes. Aunt Melinda managed to keep things in order, Grandmother Holliday enjoyed the festivities, Aunt Pat and Uncle Denny mostly laughed at the characters surrounding them, and my parents (surprisingly) chose not to claim that their two bizarre children were adopted. There were numerous other relatives present that we hadn’t seen in years, and all in all it was a memorable party.
In addition to visiting Camp Fitch and other childhood haunts, Aaron felt it necessary to shoot fireworks, so after bumming M-80s and bottle rockets off of Blake we lit a bonfire, grabbed cigars, and launched fireworks into Lake Erie as the sun went down. The following day we returned to Cleveland, re-awakened a few more childhood memories, and finally flew home Sunday evening.
