As close as Michael Hamby is to his grandmother, my mom, there still remains the geographic reality that she lives in Greenville, South Carolina and he doesn’t. Fortunately, over the years, both he and his brother, Peter, have spent lots more time with her as adults than I ever did with either of my grandmothers. I’m very happy for them and wish I had had the opportunity (Perhaps I didn’t make the opportunities) or had made the time to travel to Iuka, Mississippi or the mountains of North Carolina when I was in my early to mid-twenties and getting on with a career and having adventures. But that was then and this is now and, in the very recent wake of Peter and Michael losing their Washington, D.C. grandmother, the beautiful and loving, Mary Connolly, it has become even more important to Tressa and myself that GeeGee remain an active and integral part of their lives. So, in the run up to Himself leaving town for two years, when it became clear that there was no way that we could get her to Richmond or him to Greenville, the anxiety level (mine) and the hand wringing (mine) crept higher and tighter. They had to see one another and a phone call seemed a tepid solution. Then, I remembered that Geraldine Hamby has not let any grass grow when it comes to technology. At 86, e-mail is old hat. She’s a texter and an I-Padder and now was the time to step it up and put it all into play if there ever was one.

As I write this, Michael Hamby is somewhere in the air between Detroit and Tokyo on his way to Bangkok, Thailand, first destination along his way on a two-year tour with the Peace Corps. Although I think MBH is quite more advanced than his father in so many ways at the age of 24, judging from the flurry of activity at 4:00 AM on the morning of his departure, he still hasn’t bested his dad’s flare for leaving things for the last moment. So, with his mom, yours truly and Himself operating on a combined total of six hours sleep, there we were, in various capacities,
filling out paperwork, hunting down a camera card the size of a Barbie Doll Valentine and standing around. I was standing around. Then I was waiting in the car. We left in plenty of time to catch the hideously early flight, but then we had to turn around to retrieve Tressa’s phone that MBH was taking to Detroit. Take two: We backed out of the driveway under a full moon, big and as bright as Michael’s future, and like Muhammad fleeing Mecca to Medina, we got this Hegira rolling.

In less than 48 hours, Michael Brian Hamby, 24, will begin his journey to Thailand for a two-year (at least) hitch with the Peace Corps. Needless to say, his mother, brother, grandmother — not to mention a small legion of extended family and friends – are very proud and excited for him. There was a time before the economy cratered, when a college graduate with okay grades and reasonably good health had a fighting ( pun noted) chance to travel to some far flung part of the world to help some folks and have an adventure. Not so anymore. These days you have to have game. Yes, the era has passed when, if you were shut out of grad school, and a minimum wage job was the only option for a gig – and living in your parent’s basement didn’t appeal, that the Peace Corps was an option for a two year vacation.

The CBs have been busy but they haven’t been busy writing. Time for a change in 2012.