Eeny Meeny

Is anyone else old enough to remember the episode of The Brady Bunch where little Cindy can only have one ticket to the school play and doesn't know whether to ask Mommy or Daddy? Our week was a bit like that.

Son #2's moving up ceremony was this morning at the elementary school (exiting 5th graders are headed for the middle school). We were originally told that there would be three tickets per child, because of space constraints. Now begins the fun.

My son asked Grandma (my mom) if she could come to the ceremony. She said that she didn't think she could get the day off work. Daddy, the electrician, is working on a rush-rush project, so he wouldn't be attending. Older brother had a final exam that day so he wouldn't be able to come (though he was mighty disappointed...and who are we to discourage such an obvious show of brotherly love?). Mommy was able to take the morning off, so that's one ticket accounted for. My father-in-law and his wife would be in town to attend Son #1's bar mitzvah over the previous weekend, so they could have the other two tickets. Great, that worked out. Or so I thought.

Then...older son found out that his final would be over at 9:45 and he could walk over to the ceremony to be there by 10:00...IF he only had a ticket. Sigh. Grumble. But...we found out that a fourth ticket would be available for some families via lottery...so we put our name in and hoped for the best. Still OK. Right?

It gets better. Grandma wasn't aware of the ticket limit, so unbeknownst to us she groveled until she was able to get today off. She was all excited when she called me earlier in the week to let me know. So I had to drop the bomb and tell her that all the tickets were accounted for, and that Son #1 had been promised the fourth ticket if we were lucky enough to get it. "Oh. OK. I'll just sit at home that day." I think my Italian mother has finally assimilated the concept of Jewish guilt after living on Long Island for 40 years. Believe it or not, I offered her my own ticket and held my breath. She declined, and said that the Florida folks should go because they've never attended anything like this for the kids before. But...I told her I'd check with the school to see whether any more tickets were available...with a heavy heart of course.

The ticket envelope that came home that afternoon had four tickets in it. Hmm...a blessing, or a curse? An argument ensued between the boys. My oldest, bless his little 13 year old heart, told his brother that he was going to give his ticket to Grandma. Middle brother got upset because he really wanted his brother to see him graduate (more display of brotherly love? can you stand it?). After much discussion, we got Son #2 to realize (reluctantly) that the best thing to do for the sake of the oldsters was to let Grandma go. Son #1 called her with the news. But we still held out for the seeming impossibility of a fifth ticket. Son #1 would call after his science final was over, to see whether it was worth trudging over to the elementary school.

I called the school this morning to ask for the miracle. The very polite secretary in the main office said that the assistant principal had no more tickets but would call if something turned up. OK, I thought: that's that. WELL...at 9:25 a.m. the phone did ring. They'd finagled an extra seat. After profuse thanks, I hung up and waited for my older son to call. Boy was he excited. I even managed to swing by and fetch him so he wouldn't have to walk the whole way. How often does this much luck fall into place?

The ceremony was as cute and wonderful as they all are. The fifth grade sang a lovely song called "Dream A Dream" in three part harmony and of course I got all teary eyed. And the applause for my kid was extra loud with ten family hands instead of six.