Life of the party

Edith likes parties. We didn't realize quite how much until last Thursday evening, when we were preparing to go to a Halloween dinner up on the seminary campus. We told Edith that we were headed to a party. She repeated "pah-ty" eagerly and then some word starting with B that we didn't recognize. But when we got in the car, she pitched a fit. She wouldn't be strapped in for anything and kept pointing out the window and repeating the B word frantically. So Tom removed her from the car and followed her in the direction she was pointing.

They wound up at the grill in front of the adjacent building. All summer and fall, we have been grilling out with our neighbors on Thursday evenings. It turned out that Edith's B word was barbecue, and that Edith had come to associate party with the weekly barbecue. We had no idea she enjoyed it so much.

It was very hard to explain to her that the barbecue was postponed this week so people could go to a different party on campus instead. Once she got there, however, she had a great time, watching fascinated as the older children bobbed for apples. And the next night, when we got home from grocery shopping after dark in the rain, she made a beeline for the hearty souls upholding the barbecuing tradition in less-than-ideal, end-of-season circumstances.

But Edith enjoys formal affairs, too. Saturday we attended an elegant history department wedding at a nearby 18th-century inn, and she was pleased as punch to dress up and sit eating hors d'oeuvres with all the grownups. The only part of the evening she couldn't brook was the ceremony. It was out of doors in what turned out to be a stiff wind, light rain, and 50-degree temps. Most of the adults bore up nobly, admiring the bride and groom's forethought in providing each guest with a Lands' End scarf, tied with a poem about the vagaries of October weather. But Edith's patience was not so easily purchased, and before any of the wedding party had processed down the muddy, straw-lined aisle, she let the whole attendant company know she thought they were nuts. So she and I beat a hasty retreat to the inn, where she seated herself happily near the fireplace with some bread and cheese and prepared to greet the other guests once they came to their senses.

Edith and her lady-in-waiting