Another quick one, my chickadees. Yours truly had too much fun this weekend, and you know what that means. The facade I like to cultivate that I’m a dedicated, organized blogger gets blown to Cheeto land. I did get to see my best friend from childhood and her delightful, funny husband. They live in the desert, and I don’t get to see them very much, so that was completely awesome.
Back at work today, I got a text message from the kid to tell me his friends were over again and that they’d used my card to get food. I sighed heavily. They have been frequenting my house several times a week for the past few months. I get it, this is their last summer together before college changes everything. But today I got crabby. Where are the other parents? I muttered to myself. Why is my house where everyone gathers? No one offers to pay for anything. We end up driving everyone one home. Grumble, bitch. I checked my account for the food delivery damage. $60 bucks. Sigh.
But then I thought about my childhood friend. Her house was the gathering house. It had a yard all around it and had the advantage of not having a dad who yelled, like I had at my house. In the summers, we practically lived at her house, showing up before lunch and staying way past sunset to play hide and seek. And all day we inhaled immeasurable amounts of ice cream, Popsicles, sandwiches, snacks, and Kool-Aid. True, there were 7 kids who actually lived there, so what was a couple more, but still. I never heard her mom complain about us being there, sprawling all over the furniture, running around the yard, or consuming mass quantities of food.
So as I sit and listen to the kid and his friends laughing and talking trash (OK, it’s Dungeons & Dragons trash talking), I realize, I’m paying it forward for all those summers of freeloading as only kids can do — freely, without malice, and with gusto. Thank you summer second mom, I’m honored to carry on your tradition.
sandradeden.com 
This is…a really good one!
Thank you!
And I had the Musumanos, my best friend Jen’s house. I lived there as much as I could, and mooched like nobody’s business. They were so generous and kind, some of the best times of my life. Lucas is very fortunate!
Awesome, and thank you! As I recall, we cleaned out your house a few times too! LOL!
That’s funny you say that because anyone that ever came over my house always said “why is there only no-salt potato chips?” (that was the ONLY snack we ever had and there were usually just crumbs because Pat always ate everything) and “why can’t we drink the orange juice?” (that was for screwdrivers).
But we ate the chips anyway, didn’t we? LOL! Although I do remember Pat the hoover! Too funny about the OJ. Oh, the 80s….