Rehoboth

The fleet

      It's 7:30 in the morning in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and I've just had the Washington Post delivered by happy relatives riding on  a flotilla  of bicycles.  Bother-in-law John Bridge leads, with Jamie on a tagalong.  Josh, Megan, and Jack all ride their own bikes. Paul has Charlie on a tagalong, and Tina has little Sammy in a child's seat.  This crew stops at  Lingo's Market to buy 7 newspapers and a bag of muffins.  Then they begin deliveries to some of the houses that my family rents for its annual beach week.  Jack is careful to place the papers on the back porch or the side porch or wherever his  aunts would like them.
     First they stop at the little house that Judy and I have.  Then around the corner to my cousin Andy's.  Down the street to sister Siobhan's, back toward the ocean  to sister Florrie's, then to Paul and Tina's.  They deliver the New York Times to cousin  Deke's,  and end up at  sister Rose's to eat the muffins.

Cole bartending

Judy and Rob

     My family has been gathering at Rehoboth for more than 35 years.  At first we were contained in two houses, side by side, that my mother and her sister  Auntie Ellen rented.  In our house were my mother and father, my sons David and Paul, and I,  Rose and John and their children Jessamy and Jacob, Eileen, Florrie, Vonnie, and my little brother Donnie.  My father's sisters, Aunt Sister and Aunt Helen, would drive down from New Jersey with my young cousin Danny.
     Next door at Auntie Ellen's house, Uncle John would be whistling and working on his model train layouts.  Deke, Peter, Andy, and Mary Ellen were there, along with Mary Ellen's dog.
     Got that?  Now multiply for spouses and add children and grandchildren.

1939 sophistication

Vonnie

     Last night Vonnie and Ernie started what will surely be a new beach tradition:  a fancy cocktail and dance party.  Rose's son Jacob,  Vonnie's son Cole, and Paul's wife Tina were the bartenders.  Jacob brought with him the book of drinks recipes, copyright 1939, that had lived for 40 years on my father's bar in our basement rec room.  Jacob and Cole agreed that Grandpa probably never made most of the drinks in the book; it was always a  Manhattan  for Aunt Helen, gin for Auntie Ellen, highballs for the men.  The drinks at our cocktail party were much fancier.

Dancing

     Ernie chose the music, which  led off with Seventy -six Trombones and progressed to disco and Motown.  Coles' wife Bianca led the dancing.  She was  followed soon by Deke's wife Shirley,  and then the little kids.  Three-year old Sammy led me onto the dance floor.  Vonnie and Ernie did the jitterbug.  Soon people were snaking around the room.   Jack, age 8, and Megan, 11, joined in the line dancing.  Judy and Jessamy's husband Rob were happy to observe from the couch. At first Lucy and Jamie watched from their grandmother's lap, and then they gave it a whirl.
    There were 44 of us at the cocktail and dance party.  I know, because Florrie gave Jack and Charlie $5 to count us.  It took them a while to get preliminary estimates, and then longer to agree on a number.  The challenge occupied them for about an hour, and then they began to dance.

Jamie, Rose, Lucy