A Nice Evening Out

Never let anyone say that Becky and I don't know how to have a good time. One of our favorite things to do when the Bloom grocery store used to run double coupon specials was to go to the store, split up the shopping list and buy groceries for ourselves and the food pantry at church. I liked to see who could finish first, but Becky didn't want to race so my victories were always hollow. I like grocery stores in general, so we had a good time.

Saturday evening about 9:00 or so, Becky asked me if I would go with her to get gas in her Glass-Enclosed Toyota Music Machine (aka her 1999 Avalon) and, never one to miss out on fun, I said sure and we were off. The station is about a mile from our house, so we arrived quickly; I jumped out and pumped the gas, noting that it was "down" to $3.20 a gallon, and got back in. Becky proposed that we go to Nathan's Ice Cream Bar (or whatever it is) about half a mile away. I wasn't sure I could take that much merriment, but I agreed and we went to Nathan's where the line was about thirty people long. They serve quickly there and soon we were enjoying a vanilla cone and a pineapple sundae respectively.

We sat at one of the tables, ate our ice cream and watched the line double in size in about ten minutes. It was a nice evening and nice to be out. Then we went home, but it was a nice (if brief) outing.

We are not what anyone would call outdoor people. Most of the time in this area it's too humid or hot or cold or rainy or snowy or whatever to enjoy being outside. Generally we go from our heated or air conditioned house to our climate-controlled cars and then to temperate buildings and stores and rarely stay outside. We' had a nice stretch of low-humidity warmish weather and it's nice just to be out.

When I was a lad, we frequently sat outside as a family. Our house didn't have air conditioning, and we would sit in the dark (fun times!) until the interior cooled down enough to sleep. I remember chasing and catching fireflies in a jar and seeing if they gave off enough light to read a comic book by. I never could, but I kept trying.

Our mother preferred that Ron and I stay outside anyone so we wouldn't tear up the house, so we pretty much did live outside. There have been a lot of changes since those days, but it was nice Saturday evening to, in a sense, revisit an earlier time. We'll have to do it again soon.