~ Wear A Shirt To The Dinner Table ~

Summer has finally come!   Hooray!  Yippee!  Wahoo!!!!!  And Pop-Pop’s little cottage at the beach was waiting for us, along with Pop-pop’s roses, which still wave ‘Hello!’ to us in the ocean breeze.  Don’t tell ME that man is dead!  He blooms every summer in those flowers, as if to say, “What, you didn’t think I would actually leave you, did you?”

My Captain’s best friend, (since 3rd Grade!), Ty, and his wife Maggie and munchkin, Emily, joined us at the beach cottage for a few days, to jump start summer.   It’s always more fun with friends!     They’ve been here with us before, and therefore already knew the two immovable rules that have stood here since I was a little girl:  1) Everyone HAS to wear a shirt to the dinner table and 2) Everyone does their own thing, (except for rule number 1).   I don’t recall what original event happened that rule # 1 had to be created, but the law of everyone wearing a shirt to dinner is firmly entrenched in my mind, even after nearly five decades, so it must have been a doozy!

Fast forward to yesterday.  We’d spent all morning on the beach, in the sun and salt breeze.  We all came up to Pop-Pop’s air-conditioned cottage for lunch and a bit of a rest from the scorching sunshine.   I was looking forward to being with my beloved family, and my good friends! I was excited to hang with them, away from our usual work-week schedule and grind.  I couldn’t wait to start a game of cards or backgammon or something equally fun in fellowship during lunch.

But when I came out of the kitchen with my sandwich, I found that everyone was already adhering to rule #2.

They were all already doing their own thing, whether it be watching bad cartoons whilst consuming their body weight in unhealthy orange cheese balls…you know something is unhealthy when it is packaged in a barrel.

Or reading while sipping coffee.

(At least, it MIGHT have been coffee.)

Or working on learning Spanish, or designing a new shed for beach chairs and umbrellas.

(While drinking whiskey and beer.)

And while being ogled by the only one who hadn’t yet found an occupation for their lunchtime.

Other than, of course, taking pictures of everyone, and being a nuisance in general….at least until the warning-stink-eye came my way…..

Ah….togetherness!

But hey, at least everyone was obeying Pop-pop’s rules!

Happy Summer, Everyone!