“A Perfect Day”
This past weekend my wife and I went to a wedding in Charleston, South Carolina. The bride was beautiful and the reception was fun. There was good food and good company and a chance to catch up with a lot of people we hadn’t seen in a while. I rated that evening a success.
But the real fun was reserved for the next day. We had been invited by the bride’s parents to their beach house at Folly Beach. Though we have been friends for ages we had not been to the beach house of Tom and Joanne. But thanks to a good car and On-Star we made it there around eleven in the morning.
When we got there two other friends of ours were there. Terri and Charles and my wife Terry and I have been friends with Tom and Joanne for years but we don’t get together that often. When we do it is talk, talk, talk. The chatter never slows down and we get caught up on everything and everybody.
The highlight of any visit to see Joanne is when she cooks and she had invited us to lunch on this day. I could hardly wait and I had thoughts of all kinds of wonderful dishes melting in my mouth. The last time we had visited Tom and Joanne she cooked a roast and had mashed potatoes and a variety of vegetables.
With these visions in my head you can imagine my disappointment when she said that we were going to “order in.” We discussed what we wanted from low country boil; to pizza. We just couldn’t make up our minds. Then Terri, God love her, suggested we clean out the refrigerator and eat up all the leftovers created for the parties and the guests in the house prior to the wedding.
The women went in and started pulling various dishes out of the refrigerator. There was some chicken soup with a heavy broth that was left along with some chili that looked great. There was also something called “chicken divine” that was divine. My wife found some eggs and made deviled eggs and I spied two tomatoes in a bowl that I gladly sliced.
When it was all put out on the counter it was a feast fit for a king. We found enough drinks to satisfy everyone. Tom and I both had Sprites while Terry and Terri shared a diet coke. Joanne and Charles opted for diet Dr. Pepper. We dove into the food and like “loaves and fishes” it was more than enough to fill everyone and still have some left.
Oh yes there was still room for dessert which was root beer floats or an apple cake with ice cream. Can you believe it? It was wonderful. And all the time we were eating, the sun was shining off the ocean and a breeze was blowing through the trees.
The conversation was full of reminiscences and also talk of the future. There was just a warm glow that surrounded the table as we shared and recalled. Plus there was a lot of laughter at things only good friends could enjoy.
It was absolutely a perfect day and I am so grateful that good friends and good food can still bring me so much joy. As we were eating and talking, I thought to myself that this was like something from a Pat Conroy novel. We were the princes and princesses of tides.
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Jackie Cooper
www.jackiecooper.com
Jackie can also now be found at the Huffington Post! He's a regular contributor and his first article is HERE.