Sunrise, Sunset

I'll tell you, I'm feeling mighty sentimental today, kids. Wistful even. Wist to the eyeballs.

See, I'm currently in upstate New York where I've come to drop my first-born son off for his freshman year at college. If you've ever had to do this yourself, you know what I'm going through. It's absolutely awful, and I don't mean because the feckin' school costs fifty large a year*.

Okay, that might be part of it. But more than that it's because, you know, he was my little chubby-cheeked bouncing baby boy, like 15 minutes ago. And now...bye, Joe. Good luck.

Now I don't tell you this so you'll hop on my bummer bus and ride. I tell you this because when he was little, I would take him to Irish Fests, Brookside, Westport and later KC. Every year. And I tell you this because if you have kids, I want to encourage you in the strongest possible terms: bring them to Irish Fest weekend after next. Buy them a $10 all-you-can-bounce pass. Get their faces painted. Dance with them right in front of the stage. Take them to see the storytellers and puppet shows. Watch them march in the parade. And enjoy every minute of it.

Irish Fest is a great place for kids, all weekend long. They'll have a ball, the lovely Shawn Sullivan Warner and her incredible staff in the Children's Area will make sure of it. You'll have a ball. And then, 15 minutes afterward when you drop them off at college, think of the fun you'll have remembering.

*I wish I was kidding.