Driving Miss Wookie

Emma just got off the phone with her daughter.

“She’s home?” I asked

“Yeah, it’s ‘early out’” she replied.

Yikes! – I forgot the Wookie has ‘early out’ too.

Early out Fridays – something I’m not used to. Jules usually gets Wookie to and from school, but Jules was at a conference. I would pick up Wookie instead. In fact I was in the process of setting my alarm to remind me in an hour when I realized I had to leave immediately to make it on time.

I got to school just before the bell. No harm no foul, but if I had missed the rendezvous the first distress call would go to Mom. Then the inevitable text from Jules: “Where are you? Did you forget again?!”  I’ve only forgotten once, but that’s all it took to get a reputation.

An hour late, Jules texted “Did you remember to pick up Wookie?”

She was an hour off too. I texted back and let her know I even remembered ‘early out’- that would help to restore my reputation.

Jules and I opted not to join a car pool. We both tend to get agitated waiting for kids marching to their own drummers. So we keep friendly relations with the neighbors and do our own driving. It’s just 10 minutes in the morning and 10 more in the afternoon.

“Dad! We gotta’ go back to school” said Wookie as we entered our neighborhood. “I forgot to turn in my registration for next year”.

Usually 10 minutes.

We treated the boys differently. When Tyler was the same age, he was on his own as far as getting to and from school was concerned. So were his friends. They rode skateboards and bikes down and back. We assured them this was great preparation for scouting. Or whatever. If it was snowing, I would drive the boys to school on my way to work. They formed their own car pool when they became drivers. There were six young men; one who had a car with only five seats. We let them figure it out. They were accident free – as far as I know.

But we get to drive Wookie for now. That way we don’t worry about skateboarding packs of boys.