There hadn’t been one trip to the fields where we didn’t lug that bulky thing along and have it blaring at full volume. Suckering tobacco and then cropping it never went by so fast as it did while listening to a steady stream of music. It seemed as long as the music carried on, so did our lifted spirits. Anything from Van Halen to Whitney Houston, from Cyndi Lauper to Journey. The genre didn’t matter to us. Prejudice was something we didn’t care for in any form, and that included music.

The mistake of not carrying a supply of extra D batteries only happened once. That first time the boom box ran out of juice, we pretty much did too. I also think all of us kids thought the music was the cause of Pa’s resurrection to the land of the living, so we were careful to keep it playing most all the time for fear he’d leave us again.

Midnight swims had started up again. Pa would wake us, and no matter how tired we were from a hard day of working, we’d find a second wind and play like those characters from Where the Wild Things Are. Pa was our king of the shenanigans and we were his wild creatures, ready and willing to go wherever he led. And wherever that was really didn’t matter, because we had our father back, and we knew we were up against a time clock before we’d lose him again. I think we were all on the same page of sacrificing sleep to make those good memories with Pa.

The shiniest memory of them all that year has to be Harvest Day. After his unexpected announcement, Pa kept grinning and everyone continued staring at each other. No one ever addressed Pa’s spastic ways, but looks can tell more than words.

It was for that reason that the small group showed up the following Sunday, carrying towels and a good bit of doubt. But boy, did Pa prove us all wrong.

He had stayed up the entire night before, cooking and setting up tables in the shade around the pond. Even stringing up tarps to offer more shaded area. Picnic doesn’t really describe what we had that day. It was more along the lines of a feast. A roasted pig, a giant cast-iron pot of chicken bog, baked beans, corn on the cob, slaw, potato salad, watermelon. The only thing I had to do was make enough sweet tea and Tang to keep a small army hydrated.