Bobwhites and Vampires

The Bobwhite's after school routine never varied. Home again Mom kisses, cookies from the jar, promises of after dinner homework, arranged meeting place before the opening strands of Dark Shadows had us moving together closer still.

We were absolutely enthralled by the spooky drama that came to us in black and white. Our television viewing up to then had not prepared us for anything so absolutely terrifying. We walked home in pairs too afraid to be alone in the half-way woods.

Each July 4th, my mother would pile every single Bobwhite, my brother and his ever present sidekick Greg into our Plymouth Duster and head to our own very special viewing spot to watch the firework display over Washington, DC.

We would travel to my mother's dear friend's, and fellow artist, home whose husband was a Park Ranger at Ft. Washington along the Potomac River. (Their house was the yellow one in background.) We would spend countless hours waiting for darkness playing Dark Shadows along the the fort's parapets.

My brother and Greg were just horrible to the Bobwhites! They would hide in the black as night spaces below the wall and call to us from within, "Sssst, ssssst, ssssst" 

BROTHERS! You can't live with them, and you sure can live without them! At least in childhood, anyways.

Thank goodness the boys torture was worth the spectacular ending to our day.

The Bobwhites would repeat this holiday tradition well into young adulthood when we were able to drive ourselves. Blankets smoothed flat, soda in our cooler, lie back remembrances of our Dark Shadows days.