When George’s school bus stopped, his grandmother stood waiting with outstretched hands. Before letting him leave, the driver checked that she was family. “Yes. She visits every Christmas!” George explained. Asked where she stayed otherwise, he answered, “At the airport!” After all, that was where his family always collected her. Another little boy, boarding his first flight to visit his grandparents, had a different concern. Looking at the crowded cabin, he asked, “Are ALL these people going to Grandma’s house too?”
Grandparents inspire equally delightful misunderstandings elsewhere. One boy wrote his grandmother a letter slowly because she couldn’t read very fast. On a plane, a woman spent two hours describing her nine grandchildren, then invited her seatmate to speak: “What do you think of my grandchildren?” And when a wealthy student felt embarrassed driving a gold Ferrari while his classmates took trains, his father offered the perfect, perfectly misguided solution: buy a train too.