When I pulled into my parents' driveway in Florence last Saturday morning, Harper was sitting on the front steps with a library book, a sunburned nose and a sheet of notebook paper. "I ranked everything," she said, before hello.
That was the end of camp grandma, two weeks with my mom and dad in the Shoals from June 22 to July 5. It's the stretch that makes the rest of our summer childcare math work, and it's also the part of summer Harper talks about until Thanksgiving. Here's what she did, what we paid for and how it held together.
What she did, ranked by Harper
I'm reproducing the list in her order, with my notes.
- The lions. The University of North Alabama keeps two live lions in a habitat on campus, and my parents took her three times. I spent four years at UNA and visited the lions maybe twice. She now knows what time of day they're most likely to be awake.
- Fishing with Granddad. My dad retired from the power plant with exactly one plan, which was to fish more, and he took her to a park on the Tennessee River four mornings. Final count: three bluegill, one catfish he swears was "a good one" and a lot of tangled line.
- The Fourth of July fireworks. They watched from a parking lot near the river with a cooler of popsicles. She stayed up until 10 and considers this the high point of her life so far.
- Biscuits with Grandma. My mom spent her career as a nurse and is very precise about biscuits. Harper came home able to make a pan of them without a recipe, which is one more thing than I can do.
- The library. The public library downtown runs a summer reading program, and she finished eleven books in two weeks. The prize was a pencil. She was thrilled.
- The pool. Four hot afternoons at a city pool, on day passes.
- Weeding the tomatoes. Last place, with a note in the margin: "Grandma said this was fun. It was not."
What we paid for
My parents cover her food and refuse to discuss it, so our costs were all around the edges. Back in May I estimated about $190. Here's where it landed:
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Gas for our two round trips, Decatur to Florence | $26 |
| Gas money for my dad, who drove her everywhere | $60 |
| Harper's spending money | $40 |
| Publix gift card for my mom, toward groceries | $40 |
| Pool day passes, four afternoons | $24 |
| Total | $190 |
Harper spent $31 of her $40 on a stuffed lion and brought the other $9 home, which tells you something about who she takes after.
Next to the $165 a week the city day camp costs, two weeks for $190 is the best line on our summer spreadsheet by a mile. It isn't really a bargain, though, because the real cost is paid by two retired people who spent two weeks getting up early with a ten-year-old. I know that, and I try to say it out loud.
The gas money that made it work
The $60 for my dad is the line I'm proudest of and the one he fought hardest. He drove her to the river, the library, the pool and the campus, and his truck is not small. He turned the money down at drop-off. So I left three twenties in an envelope in his console with a sticky note that said "for the lions." He called that night to say he'd found it and that I was "just like your mother." I'll take it.
A few other things kept the two weeks running smoothly:
- A packing list Harper wrote herself. She wrote it, I checked it. We forgot one thing, her piano books, so she practiced on my mom's old upright from memory.
- One phone call a night. 7:30, on my mom's phone, five minutes. Some nights she gave me thirty seconds and handed it back.
- A one-page sheet for my parents. Bedtime, the foods she won't eat, her doctor's number and a copy of our insurance card. My mom read it, nodded and then did whatever she wanted, which was fine.
- Two quiet weeks for us. Ben and I worked late without guilt, ate dinner at 8:30 and kept remarking on how quiet it was. Moose spent most of the first week lying outside Harper's bedroom door.
Next year we'll pack the piano books, send more sunscreen and leave the gas money where my dad will find it on day one instead of day two. Harper has already asked whether camp grandma can be three weeks next summer. My dad told her two weeks is just right, because the lions need their rest.
