It was very much a family thing. There were a lot of children on the trip, a lot with grandparents, a lot with parents, some with great-grandparents.

What is it about grandparents that is so lovely? I'd like to say that grandparents are God's gifts to children. And if they can but see, hear and feel what these people have to give, they can mature at a fast rate.

How great it would be if parents and grandparents started children off with a nest egg.

Did they love me? The question is beside the point, somehow. Certainly they each spoiled me, mainly by giving me the false impression that I was entitled to attention nearly all the the time. They played. THEY were like children, if you consider that one of the things about being a child is that you are a parasite of sorts and have to brazen out self-righteously. I want. They were good at wanting and I shared much more common ground with them than with my mother when I was three or four years old.

Over the stove, we share personal family history. Where did your grandparents come from? What did your grandparents cook?

[The riverboat cruise carried them from New Orleans to Memphis, and back, with stops at river ports along the way.] It was very much a family thing, ... There were a lot of children on the trip, a lot with grandparents, a lot with parents, some with great-grandparents.