The "Silhouette Rendezvous" Story

4It was an ordinary day. Sunning, fishing, water skiing, just really enjoying myself. Every year we travel to the Chesapeake Bay with our friends Gary and Sandy and their three kids. Their kids are just about the same age as our kids and everyone gets along so good. Supper is the highlight of the day along the Elk River. Meal of burgers and dogs, Gary’s baked beans, a bushel of roasting ears (corn on the cob for those that don’t know), salad, and Sandy’s dirt for dessert. Don’t know the recipe for “dirt”, but it is fantastic. Like a vanilla pudding with ground up Oreo cookies on the top and bottom. A trip usually follows as we all jump in Gary’s minivan and drive around the back roads of Maryland looking for deer as they feed in the twilight. After that we may sit in the van by the garbage cans and wait for the raccoons to arrive for their evening meal. Great entertainment and it's free! Sound like fun yet. Then the evening game or movie. THIS IS VACATION!! Vacation as vacation was meant to be. By 10:00 the kids are dead to the world. The four guys bunk together and the two girls share a room. Then the fun really starts. For years, after everyone is in bed, including our friends Gary and Sandy, Carol and I sneak out the door and head to the water. Our evening dip. All by ourselves. In the dark. Scary, you bet. Have no idea what lurks in the water of the bay at night. Could be the large channel catfish or the slimy eels. Doesn't matter though, since it is OUR time and a TRADITION. Wrap a towel around you, sneak out the door, head to the water and go skinny-dippin’. Our annual tradition. At least it was for half a dozen years until the kids got wind of what we did and started watching from their windows to see if we really did it. Well, we didn’t disappoint them the first year, but after looking towards the house and seeing the silhouettes in the bedroom windows, we called an end to the skinny dippin‘ rendezvous. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.