My Decades series is obviously going to skip around. I intended this next post to be about Sweden and my mom’s Swedish heritage. Instead a visit from the Amazing Leila takes over on behalf of the present.
LEILA RIGHT NOW
Did I mention I have a great-granddaughter? Oh yeah, I did. But now she’s four months old and has been on her first trip. To Albuquerque. To introduce her pretty self to the New Mexican side of the Salfity/Magalong/Klotzback/Neset family.
What an impressive girl she already is…to which her adoring masses will attest!
Leila reads a lot; sometimes though you know how it is… you pick a book that puts you right to sleep.
Everybody gets baby-playing turn, cousin Sara (to be known as Rachi, not sure why?) first. Then Old Grandpa (called Lolo, the Filipino name for grandpa! to differentiate from the other grandfather.) and Mom take annoyed baby for a walk. A short walk, she was not impressed with the New Mexican sun, even though quite hidden.
Mom Teresa and Leila joined by Rachi, Cha Cha (Patricia) and Lola (Grandma) Sandra.
And then there’s Aunty and Uncle Steve and Michele. Then Leila ‘said’ No More Pictures. Well, just one.
We talked her into one four-generation posing. Then she absolutely conveyed the sentiment of being so very done with looking sweet and beautiful for the pleasure of the hoi polloi.
And then I sat on the patio and considered Aristotle!
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LEILA THEN
“Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man [woman]” said Aristotle. If I manage to live seven more years I can know something of Leila, the teenager, adult, elder. My mom lived to be 93 years old; in seven years, I’ll be 94. It’s possible.
I have watched the entire Up series, described below, two and one-half times. Based on that and on my own life, Aristotle’s statement is so true. I’ve mentioned from time to time, how closely my life adheres to it and how much I see my seven-year-old sons in the sixties-plus men of today.
Please, if you watch TV at all, put the Up series on you list for the near future. Be sure and see it all before the final episode comes out this year. It will be available on some mix of Prime, Britbox, and YouTube.
“The Up series of documentary films follows the lives of ten boys and four girls in England, beginning in 1964, when they were seven years old. The first film was titled Seven Up!, with later films adjusting the number in the title to match the age of the subjects at the time of filming. The documentary has had nine episodes—one every seven years—with a tenth and final instalment due in 2026, spanning a total of 63 years. The series has been produced by Granada Television for ITV, which has broadcast all of them except 42 Up (1998), which was broadcast on BBC One. Individual films and the series as a whole have received numerous accolades. (Wikkipedia, also source of Aristotle quote)
Another day in the Land of Enchantment