Beach Time

“Who is ready for a drink?” I asked? We have beer, water, a few sodas, and a couple of 2 liter coke bottles spiked with rum, along with cups to drink from. Plenty of ice. I took and filled orders for the group of 9, then got something for myself, and sat down. The ten of us had been at the beach for over an hour, and at 10 am, it was already 85 deg.

That phrase “Who wants a drink” started most every day we were at the beach, and more than a few nights in the house we rented every year in Ocean City. The house was four long blocks to the beach, across a four lane highway, and two smaller streets. Rented from a friend of a friend, for a week every year around July fourth, we were a loose group of thirty something Semi-Adults. A few people changed each year, the house slept 10 in beds, but there were several couches, and plenty of floor space. In the early years, it wasn't unusual to have more people in the morning then went to sleep at night. We never ended up with a stranger.

Which brings me to the stack of beer.

The first year, we told everyone who was coming to bring a case of beer, cans only, “for the house”. The invite spread, and soon we had over twenty people. Some used the rental just for the day, and a case was their day's rental fee. It all got stacked next to the fridge, which was a bit over 5 feet tall, and would not hold all the beer. We used a big fishing cooler, stored on a screened porch, 6 ft long, to hold beer. It was a job keeping it all cold, but hey, we had little else to do. Anyway, towards dinner, we had at least 16 cases of beer, in a stack taller than the fridge. We kept filling up the cooler, not paying attention to how much beer went down our throats.

The next morning, a couple of us decided to clean up. We were collecting empties, forgotten partially full cans, picking up trash, doing dishes, and getting ready for the day. Someone asked, “Hey. Where is the beer”. There was no longer a stack, or any beer. 16 cases gone. We decided to count empty cardboard beer holders, counted twenty. There was a lot of people that first day

Hopefully by now you have figured out we liked to drink. Another year, we only had six people at the house. Two of us decided to supply ourselves with four half gallons of Rum for the week, figuring that would be plenty. On Friday, the last full day, we got ready for the beach, and looked for the Rum. Couldn't find any. We started counting back, and realized we finished the last one Thursday night. We tried to figure it out, and decided it was Daiquiris and Pina Coladas on the beach for the girls that did it. That's our story, and we are standing by it.

We didn't feel bad about hitting the liquor store .

One night, another year, we decided to go to a local bar. Unknown to us, they only had two waitresses, there must have been two hundred people in the place. The two bartenders were not serving at the bar, orders went to the two waitresses, but they promised to send one our way. When she got to our table, she suggested getting two per person, saying she didn't know when she would be back. We finished those drinks, and my date and I decided to visit a friend who lived inland. Around midnight, we went back to the rental, and were surprised to hear an enormous amount of noise coming from the housel. We cautiously looked inside, and were extremely surprised to find 8 of our friends sitting around the kitchen table, completely naked. Apparently, they couldn't find anything to do, and got two bottles of Tequila, then started playing “Strip spin the bottle”. If the bottle pointed at you, you had to remove an article of clothing. Our arrival broke that up, but then they decided that they were going skinny dipping, only they planned to walk to the beach naked. Remember the 4 long blocks, and the 4 lane highway? I started reminding them of their jobs, and what could happen if they got caught drunk and naked in public. At least three would have faced a government hearing on the incident. I convinced them to wear towels, and off they went. A short 30 minutes later, they came back, dejected. It seems the local police have beach watchers, looking for uncivil behavior. They let them drop the towels, then made the females turn around several times.

The next day, when they straggled out to the beach, they were not amused by the “Clothing Optional” sign I had attached to our umbrella.

It was the last full day one year. We had been doing our usual beach fun- frisbee, volleyball at the local sand court. ocean dips and boogie board surfing. One of our group, Marv, had been reading "The Hunt for Red October” all week. Mid afternoon, he got up from his beach chair, announced that "I'm on the last chapter. I'm going to cool off, and finish the book when I come back”, then ran into the water. In a few minutes, Jessy said “lets take the last page out. “Yeah”, a few others said. I felt I had to be the voice of reason. “He will come back, dry off, suspect us of trying to do what we are doing, and immediately look for the last page”, I said. “If he finds it gone, he will be pissed.

Take out the second to last page. He wont expect that”.

When Marv got back, he immediately dried off just his hands, picked up his book, and looked for the last page. Visibly relieved, he sat down, and gave a very impassioned speech about how he thought we would remove the last page, and wanted to apologize for thinking so poorly of us. He went on for a few minutes, and I don't know how any of us kept a straight face. Once he started reading, in small groups, we went to the water.

It didn't take long. Marv suddenly stood up, started yelling at us shaking his fist, clearly pissed about what we did. We couldn't hear him for the surf noise, and apologized to those near our spot on the way back to Marv. We had left the page under his shirt, that was on top of his towel. He calmed down when he found it, but wouldn't speak to us for hours.

Marv eventually got over it, and continued to go to the beach with us every year.