“Bye Bye, Slowpoke! BYE BYE!”- Anonomyous. Often heard as one Morbeck bike passes another Morbeck bike.
Wednesday, August 10 - We eat breakfast in a light drizzle which is of great interest to little boys: this doesn’t happen at our kitchen table at home very often (except that time when Brad left the water running upstairs). When the rain stops we mount an excursion down to the Big City (Tuckerton, N.J.) to get some things we need. We stop first to wander around town, looking in various store windows. There seem to be two kinds of stores here: Antique stores which sell junk and Junk Stores which sell antiques. We wander down past the big pondish looking thing (It’s some sort of impoundment, that’s all I know) and see the friendly warning signs of Recreational equipment on the opposite shoreline.
Very strange playground - they’ve closed some of the slides by putting flexible orange snow fence over them. They might shop around for a better methodology as the fencing only managed to slow Brad’s various descents. We paused to admire the “Mr. Bob on the Job” portable restrooms and were quite intrigued by the county sinking some new fenceposts across the way.
We stopped at the Ack-a-Me (Delco pronunciation) and scored numerous bags of snack foods. If the county could find us they’d have every right to throw all three of our children into foster homes : Much of their caloric intake throughout the past three days has been derived from things that make crunching noises when you bite into them.
As we near the main Park entrance Brad tells us how HE remembers where to turn. “Whenever we come back here, We Turn Left at the Pretend Bear”. Hey, he’s right. Old Smokey T. Bear does stand there carved in glorious wood, reminding us that the burden of America’s Forest Fire Protection lies squarely on our personal shoulders.
Sometime in the last few days Sally related “Smokey’s story” to our carload and tears of sadness were shed by a certain 4 year old (5 in just 8 days. 8 days! 8 days!) We return to the Park and all sneak off for a quick swim and a visit to the snack bar The male contingent all had hot dogs while our female member dared to be different in a cheeseburger sort of way.
I watch boys after lunch while Brad and Sally return to the Lake. We’ve always liked swimming here - the water is almost too warm, unlike the spring fed Aquatic Club of Morton, Pennsylvania) Ben and Gabe are delighted with being able to sit down in the shallow water and they both enjoy taking whale rides on Daddy’s back. I’m stuck with just a pad of paper and a pen to write this account, it’s amazing that I’ve almost forgotten how to manually create alphanumeric characters.
After Nap Time we decide to make another foray down to Ocean City to try to recreate last night’s hilarity. We have a good time but the little boys are a bit cross. They look deadly serious with nary even a smile whenever they’re on these rides, yet afterwards it’s all they can talk about.
We take the scenic route south, passing some of the terrain we spent so much time in when Sally and I used to work down here doing Casino high roller parties. This trip doesn’t have the magical qualities of the night before, but Brad manages to go on the big Ferris wheel as well as the circular bobsled run.
Ben experiences his first “funnel cake” (they’re called “Elephant’s Ears in the Midwest) and we manage to successfully keep it away from the voracious kamikaze-like dive bombing seagulls for a few instants. It takes us forever to get back as we’re look in vain for an all purpose ice/flashlight/donut store to no avail. We have more chips and nibs and dots (disgusting orange things) for sustenance and we journey back to the campsite.
