Sandwich

 Sandwich, by Catherine Newman is a short sweet novel that was about just what I thought it would be about...and that is not food.   I am now going through the true meaning of the sandwich generation... needing to help your parent on one side and wanting to help and spend time with your grown children on the other side.  you are squeezed in the middle.

This book did not tell the story to the extreme that I am feeling lately, but it was a delightful read.  A simple story of a family on summer vacation on The Cape.  The son and daughter are now young adults, the mother is reminiscing as they spend the week on vacation about the previous years they have spent at this same rental. Flash backs to their childhood.  The children also have certain traditions they still like to do together that repeat year after year.  The grandparents also come to visit for a night and the family becomes more aware of the passing time and how they are all aging.  There is suggestions of the end of life and how we all struggle with the changing dynamics.

There are a few wonderful quotes in the book that I want to remember:

Talking about how much fun it is to sepend time with grown kids...  "But this? These grown kids, after your own life has grown so quiet?...The kids who shake cocktails and fry squid and drive to the corn stand and tell funny stories about the kombucha tap at work? I had no idea it would be this good. If you'd shown us videos of this while we were still squatting on the beach comforting a crying someone about the sand having a shrimp smell? We would never have believed you."

another quick one.. about the way kids remember the past...  Remember the year you told me to stop worrying about my flip flops?  ..You told me to leave them at the bottom of the path, you said, Nobody's going to steal your flip flops."  "Yes, I did say that."  "And what happened?"  "Someone stole your flip flops."    We call this style of childhood nostalgia the catalogue of grievances.