[The fotos indicated here are not on the general website.]
It seemed only fair to alert Alexia to the kind of person Benjamin is. So, at Friday evening dinner, I told a few stories about him:
We were sitting at the family dinner discussing a talk I was to give and I mentioned that I was to be paid. To this Benjamin, aged 10, said, "You mean they pay you to talk?!"
At age two, seeing everyone else talk on the phone, Benjamin climbed on a chair, took the receiver in hand, and began to talk (foto).
In our travels, we ran across bathrooms with a bidet. However, since my wife's family comes from a late Victorian or early Edwardian milieu, it never occurred to anyone to explain what it really is. So, Benjamin was told that it was a footbath. A short time later, he was seen standing in the bidet washing his feet (foto).
At about age five, Benjamin misbehaved. I sent him to his room. After ten minutes, he stuck his round face out of the door and said, "I'm sorry." So, I let him go back to playing. Later, he was in trouble again and I sent him to his room. After five minutes, he stuck his round face out of the door and said, "I'm sorry." So, I let him go back to playing. Later, again, he was in trouble and, again, I sent him to his room. A scant minute later, he stuck his round face out of the door and said, "I'm sorry." Sensing there was a parenting problem here, I asked, "What are you sorry for?" To this he replied without hesitation, "I'm sorry you sent me to my room!"
One year, we arrived in Paris late in the day. We ate and had some mousse au chocolat and some wine with dinner. Ursula then took us out for a drive through Place de la Concorde. Benjamin, full of excitement, said, "Oh, look there." Ursula did so and promptly lost track of the priority to traffic on the right. The person whose car we hit got out and, as he came over to us, Benjamin offered, "I told you not to drink and drive." To make matters more preposterous, the victim demanded my wife's driver's license and, when she asked for his, he drew out his police badge. Since there was no visible damage, Ursula offered him some money and asked him to forget it. He took this as an attempted bribe an officer of the law and asked that she go to the nearest police station with him. When he insisted on not returning her driver's license, she said, "I will drive nowhere without my driver's license. You can have my husband until we reach the police station." Like mother, like son.
When the boys learned to ride two-wheeled bicycles, Ursula ran along beside them to help them get started. When Benjamin's turn came, he yelled, "Just let go!"
When the boys went off to school for the first time, Ursula parked the car and accompanied them to their classrooms. When Benjamin's turn came, he threw open the door and yelled, "Bye Mom. See ya later."
Shopping with Benjamin is always an adventure. One day, in an elegant store on the rue de Bourg in Lausanne, Benjamin disappeared. He was found in the store window trying on clothes. And once he disappeared only to be discovered hiding in the nightgown rack from which only his feet could be seen.
In preparation for his wedding, Benjamin went to an elegant shop and tried on a suit. He was quite taken by it but, since Mama was paying, he wanted to take a digital picture and forward it to us for judgement. The owner did not miss a beat and, indicating to the staff to prepare the runway, asked how many women (that is, models) Benjamin was going to need!
Visits to museums were not Benjamin's favorite. He would rush through the museum and we would find him asleep on the last bench. Once, with his cousin Natasha, we found them before a case of Degas dancers imitating their positions, Benjamin being, even then, not undernourished.
Benjamin's musical career got off to an early start in percussion (foto). Later he tried the violin (foto). However, that career ended when, at one of our departures to Europe, he ruled, "Either the violin or me. Both of us are not going."
Benjamin's pianistic talents came out very early. However, when Urusla brought him to a woman who had been the director of a prestigious musical academy for evaluatoin, Helen spent a few minutes with Benjamin and came out to announce, "Ursula, dear. This child just does not want to learn." Still, as he has matured, Benjamin has kept up his interest in piano (foto), singing (foto), and even tried his hand at conducting (foto).
Alexia, life with Benjamin has always been good for great laughs. May you both have many years of laughing together.