The good old days?

Editor’s note: this column originally published April 29, 2016

“I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days, before you’ve actually left them.”

Viewers of the (in my opinion) brilliant television mockumentary “The Office” may remember Andy Bernard saying those words in his aside to the camera on the final episode of the long running series.

Truer words were never spoken.

Many parents are readying themselves for their kids to graduate high school. As a mom, I know all too well most of those parents have suddenly realized how quickly the past 18 years have gone by.

Every school event comes with the thought ‘this is the last time I will go to his last basketball game in high school’ or ‘this is the last time I’ll get to see her getting ready for prom.’

Funny how that works.

Many moms (and maybe some dads) gather the scrapbooking materials and sit down with boxes of photos, mounds of memories, and try to select just the right snapshots of special times in their child’s life to paste in a book to share with the parade of people attending graduation receptions. I was one of those people... for my first graduate.

For kids two and three, I opted to create videos documenting their years, and I started in the summer prior to their senior years in high school. Oh, don’t scoff! A 15-minute video of 18 years of a kid’s life takes a long time to assemble. I don’t know how Scorsese does it.

But then, when I saw people — including those of the male gender — shed a few tears while watching those videos of my kids growing up right before their eyes, I knew my months of eye-straining computer work were worth it. And I understood why Scorsese does it.

It was easy to watch those and think back... yes, they were the good old days. However, I am not so far removed from those years that I don’t remember a few not-so-great old days sprinkled in there as well. There were a few times if I could have found the return address for those kids ... but then I’d remember the three c-sections and decided there was no way they were going back where they came from!

I cried at my oldest son’s graduation. I held it together for the other two, not because I didn’t want to cry, but because hubby lost it at those ceremonies. It’s called teamwork.

It’s been almost 14, 7 and 2 years since those graduations.

But once removed from the craziness of raising a family, I assure you, we now understand every morning we open our eyes will be one of the good old days ... by tomorrow.

Contact Dana King at dking@shawmedia.com