So this story I meant to tell a long time ago but life seems to always get in the way. It happened over Thanksgiving and today I'm looking at this stroller assembled over Christmas and I am reminded of the simplicity of a recent gift. So here it goes...
We visited Kansas City for Thanksgiving and met my mom, grandparents, brother and his wife as well as my uncle and aunt at my grandparents house before heading to our destination. Now if you know my grandpa you will know that he is one of the better story tellers at least that I know. He also seems to have a knack for things that might just be important at some point in time. These two talents gelled together on that day and resulted in a pretty incredible gift in both Carrie's and my own opinion.
It started as we talked about how Carrie was feeling and the whole baby thing and gradually trickled into uncovering old photos of Lee and Mary Duvall in their younger days. Photos through the years trickled to those of their own children sprouting up from a box left in the living room. A particular picture pulled showed an infant child with long curly hair wearing what appeared to be a dresslike garment. The natural assumption, this must be grandma.
To the contrary however, we were quickly informed that the child in the photo was Lee Duvall. Clearly this photo was taken a few years prior to another famous photo of trick horseback riding in Waverly Kansas taken slightly later in life.
Now we get to hear another story from Grandpa and to my surprise this is a new one. Typically we all sit on the edge of our seats for one of the old standby's, crashing the Mexican wedding, camping with the convicts or the Duvalls on parade. Everyone of those are great and if you haven't heard them ask me and I'll do my best to explain or if you get a chance ask him, you'll get the real deal and you won't regret it.
Anyway, back to this story. As the story goes my great grandmother Lela Duvall had apparently always hoped for a girl with her first and only child. Accordingly preparations were made for a girl and to make a long story short this photo of a long curly haired grandpa as a baby was the result of what Lela had planned and prepared for, at least that's how my grandpa tells it.
Now on the surface that seems like a good funny story but here's where it got really neat for Carrie and I. My grandpa's baby basket was in the basement and in his story he explained how a portion of the basket was painted pink for a girl and when he was born rather than change it, it was left that way. He said he was going to pass it to the first great grandchild and as luck would have it, that's my baby!! So he awarded us with this idol of Duvall history and now the question again becomes, what if it's a boy.
Carrie and I have decided that despite my grandpa's blessing in painting it blue or another color if needed, we will honor the tradition boy or girl leaving the baby basket with the original pink trim. While clearly modern technology has left this a bit antiquated as far as practical use, we are very happy to have it, will be using it in some way and when the time comes passing it down the line.
Call me cheesy but I thought this was a pretty neat little story as well as a cool gift. It's gotten much longer than I originally anticipated due to some necessary background information and what I felt was an opportunity to get a good plug in for Grandpa Lee's story telling.
Thanks again grandpa
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