Well it's time again for Friday Fun. Today's subject is not about books, television, movies or interviews. It's all about me. Not that my blogs are usually not about me because, they are all about me and my take on everything.
Today I'm talking about fun away from electronic devices. As much as we've tried to all get together since the last time, we haven't. We try to arrange these things months in advance so that our children and grandchildren can arrange to have the day off. It's hard when you are dealing with twenty heads of people. Well, we finally succeeded. I don't mean the whole family of multiple families like the holidays just my kids, grandkids and us. The twenty odd heads that make up our family unit. Mind boggling, isn't it?
Wait a minute you, said twenty-head something doesn't add up because you have four children, each with two children that's eighteen. That's because we always invite my dad and his wife. The choice of venue this time was St. Simons Island. A picnic was planned for early March.. Whoa, it must have been freezing, you say. Nope, it was 80 degrees. That's the beauty of living in the Golden Isles, the barrier islands in Georgia. We get on average of maybe a week's worth of freezing temperatures during the winter in December through February while in other parts of the country have below freezing and snow during this time of year.
We picked the pier area versus any other beach because of access issues for my father and I. There are paved walkways and the beach is accessible via raised access points to the beach. There's plenty to do and see no matter what your age is. There is the playground for the younger kids, gazebos and hanging swing for us older folks, majestic old oaks to climb, BBQ grills, bathrooms, and the pier to fish or crab off of. Although the water isn't warm enough to swim in until around May 1st, the grandkids couldn't resist getting their tootsies wet and building sand castles. At high tide the beach is covered with water almost to the top of the rocks.
The guys brought their poles and crab nets. We and our youngest daughter brought chicken necks and backs leftover from an earlier thinning out of roosters from our chickens for the grandkids to crab with at high tide. The pier is too high for crabbing like I did as a kid, a piece of string tied around the chicken piece. They stayed in the covered part of the pier while their fathers took the poles out to the end. Mothers armed with empty coolers stood by while their children dumped their prize catches into the cooler.
We make a whole day out of these type trips. We'll boil the crabs and bake the fish for dinner after a hot dog and hamburger lunch. I brought my 20-quart stockpot for the crabs and a whole roll on aluminum foil for the fish. The guys, son-in-laws, cook while the daughters do the other prep and fix plates. Usually my husband and I will supply the meat (hamburger and hot dogs) for lunch and the sides for dinner. I'll also mix up a batch of terriyake sauce in case one of the guys catch a small shark and one did. Nothing better than grilled shark steaks on the grill. We'll carry the lawn chairs and a hammock to take a nap in...us older folks don't have the energy of the youngsters except for James who's only one year old.
Ultimately, the writer in me, found another what-if scenario to write about when I start writing fiction again.
So what do you to get away from electronics?
Remember to balance work and fun.
For us it's a family reunion. It's the big one with family and friends from near and far. We rent out the big pavilion in one of the state parks so we have some cover because rain or shine we are going to get together.
We celebrate the fruits of our forefather's gift of independence this way. For the older two generations there was no cooking, food brought to us, abundance of young ones running around for us to envy their energy, and no clean up. While the younger generations went to view the fireworks display at the pier, us of the older two generations decided to watch the fireworks on our televisions and in our Lazyboys. Drifting off to sleep after a day of fun and sun well before the firework displays finished.
