We wouldn't have done this as kids

I’ll be taking a few days off in the next couple of weeks, leaving March 28 for a wedding in Florida, and I expect to be back on April 10.

Have no fear. The Sun Tribune will not skip a beat. I’ll take care of some things before I leave and other things via the magical Internet. And the heart of the operation, paginator Chanet Stevenson, will be here.

This will be a road trip. Although I flew a lot in U.S. Air Force, I no longer like airplanes. The last time I flew, to Chicago, I felt like I was inside an MRI tube.

Now I can’t even stand on a foot stool without feeling as if I’m going to fall. No psychoanalysis needed. I know I’m nuts.

The wedding will be on April 1. Pat and our daughter Jenny are driving. They plan to get me there the night of March 30. They got their driver licenses from NASCAR.

We are going for the wedding of my sister Fran’s granddaughter Taeler. I’m telling you about this because it illustrates how drastic things can change in a lifetime.

I would not have made this trip as a kid. The only weddings – or funerals – my siblings and I attended as kids were celebrated somewhere between Grandview and Wapato.

Actually our general circle of movement was even smaller. Most everything we did was done between Sunnyside and Toppenish. We were farm workers, and about as far as we could see was the end of the asparagus row.

Yakima was so far away we never went to the fair. It took an hour to get there on 50-mph highways that were often made slower by farm equipment. Now it takes 20 minutes on I-82.

The first time I saw Seattle I was lying on the bed of a farm truck as it sped up Aurora Avenue at three in the morning toward the strawberry fields of Burlington. All I could see was the tips of skyscrapers and millions of stars.

When relatives called about a death in California or Montana, Mom and Dad would send their condolences and flowers, if they had the money.

I was in my 20s and in the Air Force when these things started to change. My siblings and I were moving into careers. Mom and Dad weren’t struggling as much.

My siblings and I attended all of the uncle and aunt funerals on both sides of the family. Usually there were several of us, but there was at least one at every funeral.

The relatives never called about weddings. They knew we wouldn’t be there. This is my first family wedding out of state.

I might not have gone except for a personal invitation by phone from Fran well before the official invitation.

“I really would like to see you here,” was her heartfelt remark.

I teared up and said I would be there.

Since that time I’ve learned that all six of us who remain from the original eight siblings will be there. I’m sure Della and Teresa will be there in spirit.

Fran is excited. She’s never had her whole family in Florida at once.

And to think that at one time we couldn’t see past the end of the asparagus row.