Musings of the Chronologically Challenged™ Fourth Generation

 
EPILOGUE


An oversight on my part last night as I was posting the late, late Indigo: I meant to tell of the icing on the weekend cake. That was my daughter coming down from Greenville, taking me out to dinner and spending the evening with me. Time with her is always so much fun.

So we were at Outback sitting in a booth right beside the bar. The place was packed. Lots of returning Marines were there to celebrate homecoming and have a fine meal. The Freedom Way fence was festooned with banners of "Welcome Home" on the way to Jacksonville because many returned to Camp LeJeune yesterday. Two young Marines were waiting to be served at the end of the bar and it occurred to me that it would be a nice gesture to buy them a 'welcome home beer'.

Finally getting their attention in the noisy bar, I told them "I'd like to buy you a welcome home beer."

The one who proved to be the spokesman replied, "We're not drinking beer, mam. We're drinking mixed drinks."

"Fine. We'll put those on our tab." The spokesman said he was from Maryland and today was his birthday. Good timing. They both looked to be 20-21. Don't assume the 21, since the "carding" rules can be very flexible when the Marines come back from Iraq. The more reticent young gentleman was a North Carolina boy from Raleigh. (Or to be more correct, as my daughter pointed out, they were MARINES -- not boys!!!" Hey, at my age, almost every male I see is a "boy" -- even the gray-haired bloggers who refer to themselves as "geezers" -- all BOYS to me!)

Their drinks arrived and they turned back to us with big smiles and thank-yous. "WE thank YOU." I said. "And by the way, what kind of drinks are those?" The drinks looked different from any I had ever seen. The cute little Maryland spokesman, with the million dollar smile, grinned and looked down at the floor a couple of seconds before he answered. "It's a 'Sex on the Beach', mam." he replied sheepishly.

"Oh?" says granny. "Tell you what. Go down Highway 24 past Swansboro, turn and drive over the Emerald Isle bridge to the beach and maybe you'll get lucky." They laughed uproariously all the way back to their table.

Welcome home, Marines!! Semper Fi!
posted by HCL at 12:05 PM