Annual Family Concert Weekend

posted on June 24, 2007 in Family // View Comments

My family has apparently started a summer tradition of picking a concert at the Smirnoff Center in Dallas and all getting tickets. It began haphazardly last year with Chicago and Huey Lewis. You know, when the whole family goes (siblings, cousins, parents) you have to cater to all ages. Luckily, this year, and just this past weekend, we saw Ben Folds and John Mayer. It was a good concert, not great, but good. Enjoyable at least. Ben Folds was a little more experimental than some of my family would have liked, and his cover of a Dr. Dre song was…interesting, to say the least. John Mayer’s a phenomenal guitar player, but should stick to playing, not talking. Too bad we couldn’t have all gotten Police tickets.

Possibly even more fun was the golf the next day at the Lake Park Golf Club in Lewisville. It’s a straight, short course, par 70, so I felt like I was doing a lot better than normal, which I was, at least for the front nine. I think I had 4 or 5 pars for the round, which is great for me. I also had the best shot of the day. I was two inches from the hole, a gimme, and I was goofing around, taking a large backswing with my putter and pretending I was going to launch the ball somewhere. I hit the top of the ball with the bottom of my putter, the ball spun high into the air, then dropped straight into the hole. I will never be able to do that again.

We ate at Babe’s that night, a restaurant in Sanger, TX. Great food, and the waitresses sing, and they’re actually good. Also, there’s a cutout of John Wayne that peers into the window of the women’s restroom. (I only know this because the Woman told me so – I don’t often visit women’s restrooms, what with their sofas and bathroom vanities). Going to Babe’s is almost as much a ritual as the family summer concerts are becoming.

It’s always interesting what kinds of rituals form as the newer generations grow up. To the loyal few, do you have family rituals?

Also, my grandmother made a point to say how much she appreciates the fact that our extended family gets along so well. It’s something I thought was absolutely normal growing up, but the older I get the more I realize how fortunate I am to have the family I have.

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