Bossy’s Favorite Things

This poster of Bossy’s kids.

Bossy framed it years ago, and it hangs in Bossy’s bedroom above her bureau.

The original snapshot was taken one summer morning on the Wildwood boardwalk. Bossy’s kids were two and nine, and the family was living on a farm in the Virginia piedmont, which was surrounded by farms which were surrounded by even more farms. So many farms, in fact, that when selecting a summer getaway that year, Bossy thought the only possible antidote was a week in Wildwood New Jersey.

For those of you not familiar with Wildwood, take the word Wildwood and remove the wood. Then add the beach, salt air, the smell of waffle fries, a splintery boardwalk, the rattle of wooden roller coasters, the ding ding dingdingding of open arcades, and the sustained screams of bungee jumpers and drunk girls.

While Bossy is at it, she should tell you she and her family didn’t last one night in Wildwood. Bossy took one look at their mildew-infested room and high-stepped it to a neighboring beach community, where it was no small feat to find an acceptable vacancy during prime time summer.

But anyway. Bossy loves this photo of her kids, snapped hours before Bossy and the family checked into and immediately out of their Wildwood motel. Because it so perfectly encapsulates her kids’ personalities: Bossy’s sensible and funny daughter with the red nails and leopard sunglasses, and Bossy’s son, leaning in with his sweet yet capable manly manliness, still years from his teens.

By the way, Bossy’s son had, that minute, cut the sleeves from his t-shirt, and it was one of these discarded sleeves Bossy’s daughter slipped on her head as a hat.