Whew, it was so hot that day and I for one could not wait to get the girls ready and down to the beach so we could take a dip in the water and then I could lie back and work on my tan. Hubby was in the car, pulling in to the parking area and I jumped out and started to pick up the ice container with the cokes and beer inside. Doug (hubby) started hollering for me to put the cooler down and that it was too heavy for me to carry. Well, if you are smart and know me at all, you don't tell me that I cannot do something because I will do it or die to prove you wrong. The kids were carrying their little buckets and shovels and Doug got the picnic basket with all the good food in it that I had prepared.  I will admit that the cooler was heavier than I had imagined but heavy or not. I was going to carry it.

Our friends were already there, Norma, Autry and her two girls, Cathy and Robin and also Norma's sister, Sue was there. If I remember correctly a few more of her family was there and I also had my sister and my four nephews with us as we marched on down to the beach where all our friends had already spread out their blankets, chairs, coolers, toys and everything else you can imagine that families with small children need when you plan on spending the whole day at the beach.

This was not a first time trip either, we had all done it before. Norma and I were used to getting up early and frying chicken and making potato salad and getting it all ready for the guys to put it in their cars. This was back in about 1968 and we always went to Grandview Beach versus Buckroe Beach because it was much less crowded and when you go with children you don't need a whole lot of people around and another important thing was that it was against the law to picnic on the beach at Buckroe, I thought that was a very foolish law. I know why they had it because t hey wanted you to buy all your food from them and to buy hot-dogs for my family plus my sisters family could get right expensive and she had big boys who could eat at least two to get them started. 

I love hot-dogs at the beach but there is no way you can eat a hot dog at the beach without getting sand in it and crunching sand in a hot dog is not very appetizing to me. That is why we ended up at Grandview and it was a nice beach, the sand was not as smooth and there were rocks in the shallow water but once you got past the rocks it was nice and clean and cool too.  I was sweating up a storm carrying that cooler from the car to the beach but hard headed as I am, I was determined to make it. 

I felt good, I was almost there. Have you ever seen a building implode? You know where they hook the explosives up so the building blows up and explodes caving inward?  Well, that is not what happened. No, I was so hot and so weak from carrying that heavy cooler. Oh, did I mention it was made of Styrofoam? Well, it was.  I sat, no, I flopped on that thing when I put it down. I was just gonna take a break and when I flopped on it, the thing exploded. Ice, cokes, you name it, whatever was in it came out of it fast and I just settled on down in the ice and sand and what was left of the cooler. Felt good to me. Those silly friends I came with, were laughing so hard they just sat there hysterical.

I guess they all thought I was gonna be mad at them for embarrassing me or laughing at me but you know what, I wasn't embarrassed at all, I was cool as a cucumber, I mean, if you had your bottom buried in ice on a hot summer day, you gotta admit, you would feel some kinda good and I told Doug it was one less thing we had to carry back home. I always can come up with a positive twist to anything that happens.

Mama always told me ???laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you cry alone???, good advice, don'tcha think?

(c) Mary Ellen Grisham