Bye, Bye Miss American Pie

Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie.
Drove my Chevy to the levy but the levy was dry.

Them good old boys drinking whisky and rye,

singing this will be the day that I die......

This song has been stuck in my head for a couple of weeks.  Every time I looked out my family room window and saw my little blue shaved ice trailer with a wily pirate octopus on the side, I'd start humming the words to American Pie.  We all know I'm a bit dramatic, but it just felt like the song fit.  Americana at it's finest, that little summer business of ours.  But, Shavy was leaving, going to a new home, and I was sad.  We were all sad.

You see, it wasn't going to work out anymore, selling shaved ice during the summer.  We just didn't have the time, the energy, the employees, or we found out, our really great location.  So, in February, Ross listed the business and the trailer for sale.  In two months we had so much interest, a dozen or more people come to see the trailer, and a couple of solid offers that fell through.

Me?  I just wanted to keep the trailer dormant for a summer and try it again next year when we knew that things would be a little bit slower because Ross wouldn't have a demanding summer work project and we wouldn't have a baby sucking up all our time.  But, Ross wanted to sell, be done, and move on....and use the money to buy a new truck.  So, we listed and waited.  We dropped the price a bit.  And we waited some more.

Finally, a couple of weeks ago, it felt like the right people came along, they made us an offer, we collected our second round of earnest money and we gave them time to get their  cash together to buy the trailer outright.  Honestly, we didn't think much about it all until last Thursday, the day that Shavy was leaving our house forever.  

That morning, about 15 minutes before we needed to leave for school, Elliott was super emotional and I couldn't figure out why.  Finally after some prodding, and an outburst of the saddest tears and sobs he's ever shed he said, "I don't want dad to sell Shavy Jones".  Man, my eyes well up with tears just thinking about it.  I told that sweet boy of mine that I didn't want dad to sell Shavy either, but that sometimes we have to do things that we don't want to do, because they are for the best.  And, I made a promise that I hope to keep, that one day, we'll have another shaved ice trailer that he can spend his summers working at.

Because, you see, that trailer meant a lot to us.  We spent four of the greatest summers of our lives eating shaved ice as a family, with our family on the patio of Mt. Mike's pizza.  It became a gathering place for family and friends.  Something fun to do on a hot summer day.  A place we could always count on finding Uncle Willie or Cousin Parker to hang out with for a little while.  And, if Uncle Willie was there, it was a safe bet that grandma and grandpa would be along shortly, too.  It gave us a  place to laugh and run and have fun.  A place to make our tongues green or purple.  In four summers, I've easily got a hundred or so pictures of us and everyone else on that patio eating shaved ice.  It had become a summer tradition that we all so wanted to maintain forever.  But, forever isn't really an option with most things in life.  It was time to move on.

So on Thursday, the nice guy who bought the trailer came, notebook in hand, for a two hour training session in our driveway.  Ross showed him the ropes, how to shave ice, how the trailer works and then, when it was time to take the trailer away, I pulled the boys into the house.  I don't know if it was going to be more sad for them or for me (okay, more sad for me because I shed a few tears sitting at the kitchen table listening to Elliott read his homework), but I just didn't think that we could watch the trailer drive off into the sunset.  When she was gone, and Ross came into the house, all he could say was, "Well, that was a bummer".

Yes, it was.  It will all be fine, and we're pretty much over it but oh my, a bummer it was.