Dancing and Dinner

Friday’s are Dance and Dinner. I say it in that order by design. Most people call a good night out Dinner and Dancing. Allow me to illuminate you. One of the included amenities here at Llano Grande is Friday Happy Hour with live entertainment and a huge dance floor to line dance, two step or do the Fonzi Shuffle, that my husband and many others like him do.

Here’s the hitch. In this 55 and over park where the 55’s like me are the approximate age of the general populations’ kids; Happy Hour is from 3PM – 5PM. I leave work at the pharmacy early on Friday’s so I can make this weekly ritual.  Everyone gathers in the mid afternoon in the dimly lit ballroom. The band plays, people dance, and BYOB coolers and snacks are welcome. I must admit, for a snowbird park on a Friday afternoon the bands are damned good. It only lasts for 2 hours so you can’t get in much trouble in that time. It’s wierd in that it's a little like going into an afternoon matinee’ at the movie theater and emerging at 5pm into daylight. Your brain forgets that it is still light out in the dimly lit afternoon venue. Live music and dancing are generally associated with 8PM and later. So, the dancing and drinking happen first then we all leave in search of dinner. Last night was our friend, Paul’s birthday. His wife is out of town this week, so I brought birthday treats and got the band to sing Happy Birthday to him.  At 5:00 we all emerged from the building with diallated pupils squinting in the daylight and talked about where to scrounge up dinner. 

Happy Birthday Paul!

Last night we had one of those “better to be lucky than good” evenings. The usual Fish and Chips dinner was not offered at Happy Hour, so we all left hungry. Champ and I ventured into Mercedes to a pizza place everyone raves about. I eat pizza about 3 times a year, so it was a big night for me. Mercedes is a small border town. The pizza place is just off the Main Street of the historic downtown district. We saw street barriers being put up as we entered. Luck would have it that we found a street side parking space across from the pizza place. More luck would have it that the Lighted Christmas Parade was to take place at 6:30 and half block from our dinner venue! Timing was everything. We had our pizza which was very good, by the way, and just as we finished and left the building the parade was starting. We put our leftover box in the car and strolled all of 50 yards to the intersection to watch the lit parade.

It was a parade of true south Texas culture. We stood there in the dark, in our shorts and sleeveless shirts. It was still 80 degrees and the warm light southern breeze was wafting up the street. Marching bands and beautifully lit floats carrying Santa and the kids led the way, churches and local Ag Queen floats were next, a few local politicians running for Mayor, City Council and State Legislature followed. Then, it got fun! Big 4WD trucks lit within an inch of their lives, music and horns blaring; sporting the names of local businesses followed. The street was lined with robust holiday revelry and Christmas spirit! We literally stumbled into it.

That set the tone for the rest of the evening. We drove back to the park and spent 45 minutes driving around looking at the holiday light displays at the sites around the park. Yep, it’s a big park. Now that our holiday spirit has been awakened, we will spend tomorrow decorating our own place inside and out.

Until next time…