Back in the day, we would have a "Beach Week". I went on these trips both in high school (Jersey Shore - had so much fun! Great group of gals!) and college (Myrtle and crazy!). After college, I had several friends that I would travel with on a regular basis. We did do one trip to Florida. But mainly, we would get together every year on St Patrick's Day and celebrate this in a different city (Chicago & Boston are the best for this!).
This past weekend at the beach with my family, I was eerily surprised at the similarities between this weekend (which was to celebrate my Mom's 70th Birthday - 17 of us all together!) and the trips I went on in my younger days.
First one to the house gets the bed. Then: Back in college if you didn't get to the rental house first, you did not have a bedroom. Or, depending on who was there the older girls in the sorority would move your stuff to a closet. Now: We were the last family to the house - first night I started out in a twin bed, then got woken up by my son and switched spots with him and went to the couch, second night I was on the living room floor.
Your food gets eaten, even if it is labeled. Then: The only thing that was safe to leave in the fridge was salad fixings. I did leave stuff locked, in my car trunk! Now: Brought home leftovers from the big birthday dinner and my husband ate them. (There were so many of us the restaurant gave us a marker to label the "to go boxes".)
Running out of beer. Then: You could not leave anything around, because someone else would drink it! Now: I'm not much of a beer drinker, but we did run out of vodka. Luckily, Mom did have an extra bottle hidden the the back of a cabinet.
Running out of cash. Then: All of our money was spent on beer and our share of the rental house. Now: I don't usually carry cash and the snack bar at the beach did not have the credit card machine up and running. All I had in my pocket was my bank card.
Calling around to find out where the party is. Then: We didn't have cell phones (at least I didn't), not quite sure how we managed this. Now: 100's of calls, texts and emails back and forth trying to figure out our plans.
Coming out in the morning and your car isn't where you parked it (or thought you parked it). Then: I don't need to go in to details on this! Now: My car did get moved because I was blocking someone in!
Getting kicked out of a restaurant. Then: We did get asked to leave a bar in Boston one St Patrick's Day after a member of our group imbibed too much, this friend later went on to get sick on a table in a restaurant. Now: Went to restaurant where the big birthday dinner was to take place to set up and my 5 year old daughter was sick all over floor!
Up all night holding your friend's hair back. Then: Self explanatory! Now: Was up all of Saturday night with my 5 year old! She had some sort of stomach bug. Poor thing!
I guess it is nice to know that even though you are older, some things don't have to change! They just have a different "spin"!
Have a great day!
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