Sunday, August 25, 2013

Mayberry Moment

Yesterday I had a great time rockin’ with friends.
 
No, not rockin’ as in dancing and drinking and shouting over loud music.  Rockin’ as in rocking chairs.   Seriously. 

After yoga yesterday (and that’s another topic) some of the girls said they were headed to nearby Brown’s Berry Patch farm market to have coffee and set a spell on the rocking chairs provided on the porch.  Okay they didn’t actually say “set a spell”.   But they did call this summertime Saturday ritual their weekly Mayberry Moment.  This appealed to me a lot.
 
Brown’s is located very near the shores of Lake Ontario where several of my yoga pals have summer cottages.  In fact, our yoga class is held in a church right near there too.  So apparently these lake dwellers – longtime friends of one another – established the Mayberry Moment tradition some time ago and look forward to it each Saturday morning.  I was delighted to join the group yesterday. 
 
We bought our coffees and bagels and pulled up all the rockers we could find, along with a bench for the overflow.  Kim (known to us all as Kimmy in high school, but I guess at our age that doesn’t sound quite right) used her noggin and found a small wagon nearby to use as a coffee table.  These flat wagons are used by customers who pull them to whatever pick-your-own produce is in season.  It suited our purpose perfectly.

So we got to rockin’ and talkin’ and laughin’ and yes a little gossipin’ as we watched the little orchard train loaded with giggling children come and go. The nearby Barnyard Adventure area was alive with the sounds of goats and ducks; families and fishermen came and went, some hauling trailers and boats behind their cars; kids walked by licking ice cream cones (one licked too vigorously and the ice cream toppled off onto the gravel and that was that);  and all too soon an hour had gone by. 
 
I loved the Mayberry Moment.  One of the ice-cream-licking kids even looked a little like Opie.   I’m already  looking forward to next Saturday.  Too soon summer at the Lake will be over, and these magic moments will be stored in winter’s memory.  And that’s why I cherish them.

A very wise friend, who has gone through more than his share of troubles, has a wonderful saying I will never forget;  ‘You gotta have a little fun every day.’ 

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