Beach House

Todd was not a frat guy in college. Though we did not go to school together, from the stories I hear that was just not his style. This does not come as a surprise to me. 8 years ago, when Todd bought the Margate house his true motive was simply an investment. Wise move for a young guy. Young guy he was, however, his house became the house to be. We had an open door policy that seemed to work like a turnstile, one person out, ten in all day long. There was always hanging out to be done. The house sleeps 12 comfortably, which meant people could crash. And, with a kegerator and ping pong table in the garage, it became the frat house Todd was never a part of. Everyone wondered if this would all change when we had kids. It has, but not entirely. We still have lots of people hanging around, stopping by announced, and unannouced. We still have drinks available, only now the menu includes whole milk and apple juice. We usually kick on the bbq and have a porch full of beach chairs and loaded ash trays, but the volume must be lowered both on our voices and on our stereo. The ping pong table and kegerator are gone, but only because they were moved to Richboro. And, no matter how much fun we have, how late we stay up, or who is sleeping on the couch, we are up at 8am with our boys. However, we also prefer to have weekends to ourselves, just the four of us and we are not usually willing to bend once we decide to make it a family weekend. Our boys come first and if it becomes distracting to them or to their sleep, the party must end.

As fun as all this is, I have found this summer in particular, the Margate House has provided us with another whole dimension of activity, a family reunion. Every weekend we are there we see Chad and Allen almost every day. We usually have dinner together and sometimes lunch. This is a constant. Carri is often down and will, if nothing else, spend quality time with us at the beach. We also get to see a lot of my cousins, most of who I do not get to see too often, and many who have little kids for the boys to play with. It has been thrilling to catch up with extended family in the most relaxing of settings.

I grew up, as I have written a number of times, surrounded by family. We were always with our cousins, and our extended family seemed like immediate family. I want to provide my children with similar experiences and though our immediate families seem to be smaller, if we reach out to the cousins two and three times removed, it is a family reunion which always brings smiles.

Spending summers in Margate is fun, its relaxing, its time on the beach, but now we can add to the list Family Reunion and it certainly completes the package.