Weekend in Big Sandy, Texas
The other afternoon Melina and I packed up Winston and Piper and sped off to a weekend in Big Sandy, Texas. Big Sandy is a small East Texas town in the Piney Woods where I have my second family, the Reeds and their extended clan, plus a cat, dogs and a Jamaican neighbor named Paul, who ambles over the property line when he smells the venison cooking.
Until that point, Melina had never been really outside of the greater DFW metroplex area, so we enjoyed the tunes and drive out to the small town where my heart resides. As soon as we got there, Thomas came out with a beer and helped us get our stuff inside the house. Then Bonne and Hanna showed up. Then Erin, Kennon, Bryan and Cadence came along, and their little house was really stuffed to the rafters and ready for a party when Kathryn arrived!
Speaking of stuffed, we soon were full of venison and Bonne’s special French green beans - both in honor of Melina - and a fire was crackling away in the pit under their pergola/gazebo they’ve named “The Gazoobola.” As the temperature dropped to a perfect 60’, drinks were poured and cigars lit up and intelligent conversation ensued, as always.
Melina wasn’t a stranger to these friends of mine. She talked, laughed and smiled her way through all the conversation, graciously putting up with our attempts to say her name correctly (it’s harder than you think). She and Kennon really hit it off and were seen huddled together looking at whatever teenagers look at on their phones.
Bonne and Thomas have a plywood board where we’re all signed our names in marker over the years. It’s a great momento of their good times with all their visitors, and Melina made her mark as well.
Later the next day we rumbled down the road in Thomas’s Jeep to the Circle M Crawfish Stand. I ordered the snow crabs, and Melina promptly ordered an appetizer of gator. Again with the trying-anything! She thought it tasted like a cross between chicken and fish.
After a great meal, we headed back to the house for some more Gazoobola, music, beverages and fire. It was a late night, but a fun one. After spending so much time at home with me, I was so glad to see Melina around kids of her own age and having fun. Erin’s kids are stellar human beings.
All too soon, it was our last day in Big Sandy, but not before some crepes with apricot preserves for a light breakfast and some pumpkin carving as the final activity of the weekend. Pumpkin safely stowed away in the trunk of the Honda, we literally tearfully said our goodbyes and sniffled out of town back to the big city. I always cry when I leave Bonne’s house, because every weekend is like the best weekend of my life, and I was so blessed to be able to share Melina with them.
“It was wonderful,” she said in her sweet French accent. “You were so happy, and that made me so happy.” Which made me cry more.
