A Watched Kettle
The first time I ever heard the saying was in third or fourth grade. My mother, father, sister and I lived in Carper Apartments in Virginia Beach, Virginia, but Dad wasn’t home. We lived in a townhouse that faced the far end of the road, so I excitedly stared out the slender window next to the front door, looking for the car headlights to signify his arrival.
“A watched kettle never boils,” Mom said. Sure, it was an old saying about anticipation. But I think it was also her way of telling me to get the hell away from that window. Carper wasn’t the safest neighborhood.
I have many memories of anxiously waiting for one of my parents to arrive: Standing on one of the piers at Norfolk Naval Base as my father’s ship, the U.S.S. Nimitz, was coming into port. Waiting for Mom to come home from a night out with ‘the girls’. Looking out the front window of the babysitter’s apartment for either of my parents to pick my sister Lori and me up. They’d always come, and it was always joyous.
Mom and Dad were terrific. They screwed some things up, sure, like all parents, but never so much that Lori and I didn’t look forward to one or both of them coming for us.
When my wife Evgeniya and I found out she was pregnant, one of the first things I wondered was what kind of father I’d be. Would I be a disciplinarian or a pushover? Would I be cool or a “big dork”? One thing I knew: I wanted my daughter to be excited whenever I was coming home. Of course, I thought, we’re years away from that.
A couple of weeks ago, I got home about 6:30 pm, after a long day working on mortgage loans. When I walked in the front door, the first thing I saw was Evi. She was looking behind the couch, obviously talking to our daughter Sasha. “DADDY’S HOME! LOOK, DADDY’S HOME!” I couldn’t see her, but I heard the shuffling noise of her crawling.
Then I saw her. She came around the couch, scooting towards me, full speed, with the largest smile I’d ever seen. It was the first time she’d ever greeted me like that. You have no idea how that made me feel. My heart nearly exploded. I picked her up and gave her a huge hug.
I guess, mission accomplished. I can’t wait to see how she greets me tomorrow. But, you know, a watched kettle never boils.
It’s amazing what kids can do to your heart 😉 I didn’t know you lived in Carper! Yeah, it hasn’t gotten any better, lol
1106 Louisiana Ct, I believe. It wasn’t horrible then, but it wasn’t great. It was safe enough that my mom would let me walk to the drug store by myself. But our car also once got egged.
I went back there in 1996 as an adult, and it got BAD. Like, a security guard with a huge Rottweiler pulled up to us (I was with my then-girlfriend and her mother) and told us we had to leave immediately. That it was too dangerous for us.