Diving In

 I have teenaged granddaughters that are two of the greatest lights in my life.  They are beautiful, intelligent, snarky and funny - so funny that they make me laugh until I'm dizzy on a regular basis.  They do a marvelous rendition of "There's a Skeeter on My Peter, Get It Off" that once upon a time almost made me wreck my car on a backwoods Gaston County road. Because I love them so much, for this story their names will be redacted and they will be referred to as Thing 1 and Thing 2. Thanksgiving of 2009 was pretty much the norm for our family.  All of the kids and grandkids came over and ate everything I made in about 30 minutes.  I had the honor of cleaning up afterwards while they sat around and watched TV, ran up the Pay-Per-View bill, and threw casual and sometimes not-so-casual insults at each other. No bloodshed, thank goodness, though in honor of the day they might have kept the physical violence out of my sight. As the sun began to set, all of the young'

 Back in its glory days, before places like JC Penney folded up shop and Dillard's became a clearance center, Eastridge Mall in Gastonia, NC was THE destination on the weekends.  Crowded, hot, and loud; just the type of place I avoided, and still do. Besides, they have escalators which scare the hell out of me. Who ever thought moving stairs were a good idea can kiss it where the sun don't shine. Anyhow.   Quite a few years ago, when my youngest daughter was still a teenager and the middle one was a young mother, they decided that it would be a big old fun outing if I took them - and toddler granddaughter Julie - to Eastridge Mall; a mother/daughter/granddaughter bonding day, if you will.  This would entail loading a stroller in the trunk of my Dodge Stratus for the kid, and taking it in and out depending on how many places they wanted to go.  I don't know why we didn't just strap her in the stroller in the trunk rather than take a car seat, but the I think the words &q