The idea of documenting the growth, development, and experiences of Olie, Papa’s and Gigi’s first grandchild, began two years ago, when Papa purchased a small voice recorder and talked to Olie, as he would ride his bicycle to work. Olie was 2 ½. That last school year of 2008-2009, after years of high school counseling, was filled with accomplishment and frustration, and after two months of sporadic recording he abandoned the project. These recordings do, however, document that in several months Olie would have a little brother named Milo, expected in November 2008.
Papa did retire in June of 2009, spent 6 months involved in various projects, including a massive undertaking of organizing and typing up several hundreds of pages of writing, including an abandoned novel and a record of living in a village in Portugal, where these writings were done in the spring and summer of 1973. The “Olie Project” was still in mind, though January through mid-July was devoted almost entirely to a temporary job which, being out of town some 50 miles away, and Papa having decided to cycle, ride the train, and then walk to work each day, left little time and no energy to pursue it. Papa’s days ran typically to 13-14 hours in work and commute.
For Papa’s 60th birthday, several years ago, Gigi gave him a present she knew he would initially reject, but with time come to appreciate – a cell phone. As luck would have it, Papa could still learn new tricks, and he learned to send and receive text messages, which is highly significant to this project, for during his 6 months of daily commuting, including at a minimum 90 minutes on Amtrak each day, he would send and receive text messages, and some of these were from Mama, and some of those Papa saved in his phone, because they were about Olie and Milo, and these messages then became the starting point for the Little Boy Diaries.
Papa struggled with where the diaries should begin in time; he is a bit like Milo in terms of being organized and liking things in their proper place. Begin with Olie’s birth? Milo’s birth? The answer finally was to begin with the texts in the cell phone, and to move on from there. The first text Papa saved was from March 10, 2010, when Olie was just four and Milo was not yet 1 ½. The distinctive advantage of this time frame was that both boys were verbal, or rapidly becoming so in Milo’s case, and both boys were highly mobile. And Papa now had time for the project, as he was, once again, retired.
When not texting on Amtrak, Papa spent most of his time reading the New Yorker magazine, usually cover to cover. One particular issue was devoted to 20 current writers of fiction who are under 40 years of age, and one of their stories utilized the (dear) diary format, and this got Papa to thinking. Could this format work for two little boys, whose grandfather is attempting, not only to document their lives, but also to imagine what might really be going on inside their little heads, and their hearts? Time will tell. It is certainly true that Papa takes liberties with the “internal” discussions, the thoughts, of the boys, as he must. Significantly for the record, however, is that all behaviors and “direct quotes” are perfectly accurate. The spellings of mis-pronounced words on the part of either boy are phonetically provided by Mama. Who else?
Finally, the reader will see, as the boys became more comfortable with the diary entry process, they flourished, as did their story telling. While their early entries sometimes ran just several short sentences, as time went by they expanded their scope and their reporting became more detailed and refined. Busy as they are, Papa has to commend them for their patience in this process. Thank you, Olie and Mi!
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