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IN YOUR PRIME
GrandKids -- Zane Ransom & Amanda Ashley
“The glass man and I are getting to be good friends,” my eldest son Leslie reported from his new home in Alta Dena, CA.
 For the second time in as many weeks a living room window had to be replaced because an official major league baseball had
been blasted through the glass pane. The superbly patient, and proud, father added: “Zane is getting his batting stroke
down.”
Not yet six years old, this lone grandson, companion to five growing granddaughters (the eldest leaves home for college next
Fall), has found his one true purpose in life: swatting a baseball!
Already, along with his hero and idol, Sammy Sosa, Zane Ransom Lindeman truly can recite, “Baseball has been very, very good
to me.”
 “Every afternoon he comes home from school and goes right to the back yard,” father Leslie Lindeman says. “He doesn’t even
come into the house. He throws the ball up and then swings to hit it. About every 56th time, he drives one over the fence and
into our neighbor’s yard.”
The following morning, this kindly neighbor woman throws back all of Zane’s “home runs” from the previous day.
We travel now to the opposite coast, arriving in south Miami, FL in time for Grandparents Day at Westminster Christian
School. I have come from north Georgia to be in the audience, a guest of first grader Amanda Lindeman, age 6.
 As do her older sisters (Melissa, 17, and Stephanie, 13), Miss Amanda has blue eyes and long red hair, a poster child for
Hallmark, or Wheaties, this all-American child of innocence. Suddenly, the house lights dimmed and the curtain parted. There
was our Amanda, standing among Lily, Jason, Daniela, Andre, Sabrina and the other members of Mrs. Abbey’s first grade, all
prepped to sing their miniature hearts out:
“Grandparents, you are special—yes you are (repeat)
We love you through and through, And we know you love us too (repeat first line)
If I could choose a Grandma, I’d choose you (repeat)
We love you through and through
And we know this love is true (repeat first line)…”
And so it went, with songs and poems of cheer and celebration, interspersed with words of amplification from Westminster
administrators. However, these latter messages were direct and brief, proof positive the Westminster educators know both
their craft and their market.
Two other moments stood out for this Grandfather. A cadre of first graders (Amanda among them), took turns at two microphones
reciting “Favorite Memories” of this or that grandparent. When it was Amanda’s turn, she announced, “Every Thursday my
Grandma (maternal) picks me up and we go shopping.”
Understandably, this most American line drew a generous round of full-throated laughter—much of it from female audience
members.
As the “Favorite Memories” exercise began, however, there was one anxious moment. The very first reciter was a good-sized boy
with dark eyes and a large case of stage fright. In a flash, a teacher wrapped her arms about the child, and ushered him to
the rear of the line. From the audience came this spontaneous outpouring of sympathy and caring.
 Leaning toward Amanda’s mother, Suzy Reardon Lindeman, I whispered: “This school is awash in love.” And so it is fitting that
we close with the last line from a special poem commemorating the Grandparents Day: “When God created grandparents He blessed
our lives with love.”
Indeed, and that works both ways; so right back at you Amanda Ashley Lindeman, of Westminster.
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Outrageous Associations
