Soap Wars

Little Miss Morgan is back in town and happily interrupting my everyday patterns. She's one of my youngest 10-year old cousins and also the most rambunctious. Keeping her from getting bored is a trying task. But she's also an impressionable young sponge who soaks up every word I say.

"Repeat after me Morgan, 'Oil bad, ethanal good, oil bad, fuel cell technology good." "Oil baddd, eth-a-nol good". Very good Morgan! Aunt Sony's environmentalist mantra is dutifully repeated along with memorizing the names of every flower, shrub and tree in the front yard. Following my Earth Day speech it's time to help Aunt Sony wash and vacuum her car. Not normally a 10-year old's favorite activity but add a garden hose, a bucket full of suds and a little girl who likes to horse around and officially 'Soap Wars' begin. When I'm not looking a yellow bucket full of water gets tossed over my head then she makes off with the garden hose holding me hostage as I beg for mercy. Eventually the car gets washed but not until the two of us are thoroughly soaked to the bone.

"Next up television!" my cartoon addict shouts. Not so fast Miss Morgan. Unless we watch Nova on PBS or black and white TCM classics, TV is a potentially pernicious and passive activity. "Potentially whatta?" she asks. Sorry but television and computer games are banned in the summer in the Stark household. Next up, canoeing the Adirondacks, swimming Victorian pool in Saratoga, a game of tag at the playground, roasting marshmallows on Aunt Sony's new Chiminea then finally prepping tags for her garage sale next weekend.

"Then can you read me a Harry Potter book before bedtime?" she pleads. "Harry Potter? I don't think so!" I counter. It's all about Ernest Hemingway this week starting with my favorite 'Old Man and the Sea'. "Old Man and the who?", she questions. "You'll find out my young impressionable protégé, you'll find out"!