THE BOYS OF SUMMER

The three of us Thursday night. Tyler's on the left and is the younger of the twins. He's into STEM, the Oakland A's, throwing for track and field and works part-time in a baseball card store. It's a job that he loves. Tyler takes after Jenny. Dylan, the older one, is an Eagle Scout, trumpet player and tutor. He takes after his dad. He's wearing one graduation cord for band and another for football, where he was an edge rusher on the defensive line and a safety. Both positions utilized his 6'9" wingspan.

As of Thursday night, the boys' summer vacation began. And, it did so with a lot of fanfare. Soon after my phone captured the image above, Dylan and Tyler vanished into a bus headed for Big Al's in Milpitas. There, they partied until 4:00 the following morning.

Graduation itself, in a word, was "long". Seats filled by about 5:45 and the crowd didn't disperse until four hours later. Still, I really wanted Jenny to be there and her absence crushed me. However, the truth is that Jenny, with her high expectations, assumed as a given that the twins would graduate from high school. As such, she would have valued more, say, Dylan's playing his trumpet at a Scouts ceremony or the fact that Tyler chucked a discus more than 120 feet. I'll never get over her missing those, too.

Associated with the twins' leaving high school was a time capsule opening. (It actually wasn't so much a "capsule" as a file cabinet in an office at their middle school.) Before graduating from middle school, in eighth grade, Jenny and I wrote letters to the boys to be read just before graduation from high school. I wrote to Tyler and Jenny to Dylan. Dylan was gracious enough to let me read Jenny's letter and it was of course quite emotional for me to do so. It was a letter from the past with the intent of being read today, almost as if Jenny were reaching out to us. Dylan and I decided to keep the actual words from Jenny's letter private. But, I can say she shared her hopes, concerns and what about Dylan made her happy--all with love as the overarching theme.

The envelope enclosing a time-capsule letter for Dylan from Jenny back in 2019. The words written here are in Jenny's hand.

Tyler leaves for Davis in mid-September. I get Dylan till the end of September. But, before then, the three of us have the A's to root for at the Coliseum, bike trails to ride, a barbecue tour to enjoy and thick--I'm talking thick--slabs of prime rib to conquer.

I can tell you, my love for you will still be strong

After the boys of summer have gone

--From The Boys of Summer by Don Henley