Good Citizen

This picture of Jon Owen in his "Good Citizen" t-shirt makes me think of something sweet and funny that happened last week. It's hard to tell this story without displaying the quintessential physical mannerisms and hand gestures that are so uniquely Jon Owen's, but I'll give it a try.

So Thursdays are "family night" at the club. They put out a buffet of food and drinks, and families and staff sit around the pool area and visit. So after tennis team workouts on Thursdays, we stick around for a little bit to have a bite to eat and visit.

So this past Thursday we were doing just that -- Lauren had wolfed down her food so that she would have some time to play in the pool with her friends, and Jon Owen and I were sitting at a table chatting when a huge ruckus erupted in the pool where Lauren was playing with 3 or 4 of her girlfriends. There were 2 boys near to the girls who were apparently playing very agressively with them -- hitting them with pool noodles, pushing them over, splashing, etc. So the head lifeguard stomped over there, admonished the boys, took their pool toys away, and made a big scene.

Lauren came over to tell me what had been going on, and since it was getting late, I decided that it was time to wrap it up and began getting everything together as Lauren dried off and got dressed. In the midst of all of this, Jon Owen stalks over to the side of the pool where the boys were, and though I couldn't hear him, it was apparent that he was taking these two much older and much bigger boys to task. He was pointing at them (again, you have to have witnessed the Jon Owen point to know how funny it is) and later I learned that he was saying "don't ever hurt my sister again" -- "I don't know you but you'd better not do that ANY MORE" -- "you should be sorry for hurting my sister" -- and on and on.

Jon Owen. He's so shy and reluctant in so many situations. But he doesn't hesitate to defend his sister. I love it.