Behold, the Power of BBQ SAUCE!!!!!
The other Friday Mrs B and I went over to a childhood friend’s house of mine. He and I had literally grown up together and were best friends until my family moved away when we were tweens. We were baptized together. We went to summer bible camp from 1st grade through 12th grade. We attended vacation bible school. The little redheaded girl I liked was infatuated with him. We attended our freshman year of Bibleschool together. Then we went our separate ways. He ended up in the State Department, becoming a globe trotter for years at a time while I became a land surveyor and stayed within 20 miles of where I had grown up 😀
We would meet and catch up over the years. We really caught up at his sister’s wedding but our relationship was still “Oh, we knew each other, that’s nice”. Then she succumbed to Cancer in 2017 and during that time leading up to it, we reconnected as solid friends again. Ever since, we have made it a point to keep in touch and when he is in the North East, to visit for a couple of hours and catch each other up on what’s going on in our lives.
So Friday was such a time. He invited us over to his Mom’s house. I have many wonderful memories of playing at their house and it was great for a 10 year old boy to be out of a suburban area and way into the country. There was a rock by the side of their driveway, that probably came up to just past my knees. But to a 10 year old, it was humongous and we called it “Big Rock”. We played with Muscle Men and GI Joes and had adventures like you wouldn’t believe.
Then there were the two bad memories. The first one is humorous. I was 5 or 6 and was spending the night away from home for the first time. This was a BIG deal and I was so proud of it. Then that night we had a massive thunderstorm and I was so scared that I couldn’t stop crying and I practically made his dad take me home. How a 6 year old did that, I don’t know, but I suspect a LOT of screaming and fear. The second bad memory was of one of his dogs. I had gone over for the weekend and Saturday we had driven to Maine so his dad could scout out potential Christmas tree sellers. We were gone for like 12hours. We get home and us 3 kids (him, his sister and I) all get out at the bottom of the driveway so we can stretch our legs. The parents drove to the house and let the dog out. Now, this dog absolutely loved him. He was the light of the world to that dog. So to be gone 12hrs was pure hell for that dog. He came tearing down that dirt drive, running as fast as he could. Unfortunately, that dog was particularly stupid too. It was going so fast and only had eyes for his master that he didn’t see me until he was 5 feet away from me. In his defense, he tried to stop, but on a dirt driveway, it wasn’t happening. He bowled me over completely and dragged me a couple of feet. I got a massive cut on my upper leg from a rock cutting into me and I still have the scars from it to this day. I’m kind of surprised I didn’t end up in the Emergency Room. But in those days, you didn’t go to those unless you were dying, or dead. It was too expensive for people like us. So those are some of my memories of the house itself.
We had a wonderful time visiting. We had great food (grilled bbq chicken, light and heavy bbq sauced, grilled chicken sausages, grilled vegetables, potato salad, cole slaw, watermelon and cool drinks) that really hit the spot and it just facilitated us talking. Mrs B and he had never met so it was good for them to see the other. While I don’t talk about him a lot, he still influences my life. And obviously, I DO talk a lot about Mrs B 😀
And now he’s gone globetrotting again. Thankfully, we’ve connected via Whatsapp, so our communications should be more frequent than once every 2-5 years.
To close out this maudlin post, just remember, BBQ Sauce makes everything taste like chicken, even racoon 🦝 Hahahahahahaaa.
